During his visit to Vienna on June 16, 2025, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky publicly raised the "sensitive issue": he urged the Austria power to cooperate in the return of Ukrainian ex-high-alien and oligarchs who fled from Ukrainian justice and "use Europe, and, of course," This appeal occurred in the period of intensification of international legal cooperation: for 2023-2025, dozens of criminals were extraordinary from European countries-both businessmen and propaganda-colaborators. The most courts and law enforcement agencies are waiting for the ex-Bankir Laguna, agrarian oligarch Oleg Bakhmatyuk, the owner of chemical plants Dmitry Firtash, ex-owner of Privatbank Gennady Bogolyubov, from Austria.
360ua.news writes about this .
Austria has long become a refuge for oligarchs and former officials who had a doubtful origin and wanted to hide them in legal financial institutions of a decent European state. Numerous journalistic investigations were repeatedly recorded on the streets of Vienna, the ex-chairman of the Constitutional Court Alexander Tupitsky, ex-chairman of the National Bank Kirill Shevchenko and his colleague, deputy chairman of the board of Ukrgasbank Denis Chernyshov, ex-Nardepivan, and Ouria. They all go under a number of criminal articles - from corruption to state betrayal. was thrown into the creation of a criminal organization in the City City Hall, joined this company And each of them is a potential contender for extradition to Ukraine.
However, much more "large fish" are large oligarchs who have brought up billions of money from Ukraine and are now trying to avoid Ukrainian justice in Vienna. It is primarily about the ex-Bankir Nicholas Lagun. The estimated amount of losses caused by the state through the bankruptcy of Delta Bank and the withdrawal schemes that accompanied - over UAH 50 billion. In addition, Dmitry Firtash apparently fall into the "short list" (has been in Austria for 10 years because of the reluctance of local authorities to grant its extradition to the United States, where it has been accused of corruption agreements, in Ukraine under sanctions), as well as Oleg Bakhmatyuk (accusations of unlawful revenue and banning. withdrawal from PrivatBank).
In recent years, the Austrian courts have repeatedly denied the extradition of the criminals accused in Ukraine. However, now, the situation is likely to have changed to the level when the lower level of the agreement can be announced during a meeting of the leaders of the states. This fact is confirmed by numerous successful cases of extradition from other countries - Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Spain, Lithuania.
Among such high-profile cases is the return of the ex-head of the State Food Corporation Petro Vovchuk, an ex-propagandist from the pool of Medvedchuk Kirill Molchanov, the scandalous ex-worker Anatoly Voitsekhovsky. In addition, the case of extradition to Ukraine is likely to move from the dead point to Ukraine's propagandist Anatoly Sharia. This gives a lot more likely to be that - even hiding up with the Russian passport - Ukrainian oligarchs of the large caliber of exady from Austria will not avoid.
Mykola Lagun: Delta Bank's bankruptcy, Russian ties and 50 billion debt
After the collapse of Delta in 2015, Nikolai Lagun was investigated for a number of accusations related to the theft of bank funds and tax evasion. Back in 2012–2013, he organized illegal lending to him for hundreds of millions of hryvnias, which led to losses of more than UAH 1 billion - these funds actually disappeared from the bank. In 2015, on the verge of bankruptcy, the banker allegedly did not declare UAH 153.5 million from a foreign company and did not pay taxes for UAH 33 million.
According to the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, the total losses from Lagun's activities reach the equivalent of more than 1.2 billion euros (over UAH 50 billion). The investigation and auditors of Kroll found that more than $ 1 billion has been withdrawn from more than 50 offshore companies - in Cyprus, Hong Kong, Panama, Seychelles, Britain and other countries. Many of these firms had beneficiaries or executives related to the lagoon themselves.
In order to avoid liability, Lagun initiated the procedure of own bankruptcy as an individual. He filed a statement with the Commercial Court of Kyiv, where he found debts for about UAH 7 billion, of which he suggested UAH 6 billion, and to pay the rest for several hundred years from his symbolic salary in Vienna (about 14 thousand UAH per month, ie 300 euros).
However, since 2022 he actually lives in Austria, where he escaped, avoiding his arrest. In October 2024, Nikolai Laguna was officially made on the international wanted list for adversity (it appears from Vienna online). Nevertheless, the Ukrainian authorities have not yet managed to achieve its extradition or at least freeze the assets of the ex-Bankir. Moreover, the impression is that the lagoon felt quite comfortably in the Austrian territory: by 2022 it traveled freely between Ukraine and Austria, and its numerous assets (land plots, financial and insurance companies, etc.) remained under its control and generated profits.
Another resonant aspect is the connection of a lagoon with Russian business . In the 2000s, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RFPI), was one of the current shadowy negotiators with Russia with Russia with Russia. According to journalists, Dmitriev and Lagun stood together at the origins of Delta growth, with Dmitriev raised funds, including state Russian, and lagoon launched aggressive business expansion - not only in Ukraine, but also in Russia and Belarus.
Even after his escape to Austria, Lagun continues to do business in occupied Crimea - in particular, he owns real estate and agricultural assets in Yalta through exponential persons. Direct cooperation with the aggressor country did not prevent him from avoiding Ukrainian sanctions. Unlike many other oligarchs who have fallen under NSDC sanctions for money laundering and connections with the Russian Federation, the name of the lagoon has been absent in the sanction lists for a long time. Only in February 2025, after the next wave of publications, demanding to give the Lagun Council, did this issue move from the place - in Ukraine they talked about the possibility of imposing sanctions on it and intensifying cooperation with Austria in regard to his case.
Dmitry Firtash: Titanium on the right and endless extradition saga
Group DF owner is undoubtedly the most famous Ukrainian exile in Austria. The former gas magnate and industrialist, Firtash has lived in Vienna since 2014, waiting for the solutions to its numerous legal problems. In June 2021, the National Security and Defense Council imposed a sanction against Firtash, accusing it of participation in the titanium business related to the supply of raw materials to Russian military enterprises.
However, Firtash's main problems are not in Ukraine, but in the United States. Back in 2014, he was arrested in Vienna upon request of the FBI on charges in international bribery. American investigators claim that a businessman gave a multimillion -dollar bribe to Indian officials to obtain permits for the development of Ilmenite fields (titanium raw materials) in India - with a sight for further export of titanium to the United States. Firtash rejects these accusations, declaring political implications (he hinted that the real reason was his knowledge of Ukrainian-Russian gas schemes and a possible interest in him as a potential witness in Putin's environment).
The Firtash extradition process to the United States has become a long legal war. Initially, the Austrian Court agreed to issue an oligarch (in 2017, the Supreme Court of Austria made a decision in favor of extradition), but the defense filed complaints to other instances, and the extradition was blocked. Firtash himself, meanwhile, was released under the unprecedented pledge of EUR 125 million - a record amount for Austria.
At the same time, new claims are also raising against Firtash in Ukraine. In 2023, the Security Service of Ukraine informed the businessman about suspicion of large -scale gas theft from the Ukrainian gas transportation system for up to $ 485 million in 2016-2022.
Oleg Bakhmatyuk: "Egg King" and unattainable NABU
Once the owner of the UKRLANDFARMING agroholding and the Avangard group (which made it the largest manufacturer of eggs in Ukraine, for which Bakhmatyuk was called "egg magnet"), he also controlled two banks - VAB Bank and Financial Initiative. Both of these banks went bankrupt in 2014–2015, leaving behind multibillion -dollar debts to depositors and the state.
Bakhmatyuk immediately became the subject of attention of the anti -corruption bodies: the National Anti -Corruption Bureau (NABU) suspects it in the withdrawal of UAH 1.2 billion of the NBU stabilization loan issued by VAB Bank in 2014 - this money disappeared before bankruptcy and the debts remained. In 2019, Bakhmatyuk was in absentia announced suspicion of wasting bank funds, and the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court in 2020 arrested a businessman in absentia. However, the oligarch itself had already left Ukraine. According to open data, since the end of 2019, it lives mainly in Vienna, where it has business interests and where a number of its companies are registered.
Kyiv has repeatedly tried to achieve his extradition, but now to no avail. In March 2023, the Austrian court refused to satisfy Ukraine's request for extradition of Oleg Bakhmatyuk, calling it "unacceptable". In a comment to the press, the businessman himself greeted this decision and stated that the criminal prosecution by NABU was allegedly initiated by the preliminary management of the Bureau for personal reasons.
In parallel, an episode with a bribe : according to investigation, Bakhmatyuk in 2015 gave a bribe of $ 5.5 million to the head of the State Fiscal Service Roman Nasirov for VAT refund to his holding enterprises. Nasirov himself is known to be now on the defendants.
International legal context
Formally, extradition is governed by bilateral treaties and international conventions. Ukraine has a legal aid agreement with Austria, but it is not a member of the EU, so the European arrest warrant (which uses countries within the European Union) is not subject to Ukrainian fugitives. Each request is considered by the Austrian court individually, and the lawyers of the defendants actively use the possibility of appeal. Common tactics - to prove that the case is political in nature, and therefore the issuance is unacceptable (European states by law cannot extradite a person if persecution is motivated politically or threatens violation of his rights). For example, on this path, Denis Komarnytsky will probably go, and Firtash and Bakhmatyuk were hinted at it.
Laguna is different: he cannot refer to political aspects, since he has never had ambitions in politics. Moreover, in Austria, it can generally be "on the Russian line": after his actual lover, the ex-chairman of the Delta Bank of Elena Popova is guaranteed a Russian passport, and one of the reasons for its acquisition was probably the desire to avoid extradition to Ukraine).
One of the reasons why the return of the oligarchs was raised right now - could be the shift in the affairs of the fugitives themselves in Ukraine. It is not excluded that Zelensky has information about activating negotiations with Austria on individual persons - perhaps at the level of prosecutorial offices or special services. His statement could have given these behind -the -scenes processes of public impulse. The case of Mykola Lagun in this case looks "the simplest": quite specific financial losses, most of which were forced to cover the state, a number of episodes for tens of millions of dollars proven, understanding assets that can easily be arrested and given to repayment of debts. And at the same time no political implications. The lagoon is less integrated into the Western establishment, has no patrons, and the volume of accusations is huge and well documented. The extradition of the ex-owner of Delta Bank could be a good "fast case" to start the process and demonstrate the efficiency of joint efforts.
Regardless of specific results, the very fact of the President of Ukraine publicly creates additional pressure on fugitive oligarchs and demonstrates the determination of the state not to leave impunity financial crimes against the Ukrainian people. In the face of war, issues of justice are of particular importance, and Ukraine is probably ready to use all available tools to achieve it.
