During his visit to Vienna on June 16, 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly raised a “sensitive issue”: he called on the Austrian authorities to cooperate in the return of Ukrainian former high-ranking officials and oligarchs who have fled Ukrainian justice and “use Europe, and, of course, Austria, as a hiding place for storing their stolen assets.” This appeal came during a period of intensified international legal cooperation: in 2023-2025, dozens of criminals were extradited from European countries, both businessmen and propagandists-collaborators. Most of all, courts and law enforcement agencies are waiting for the return from Austria of ex-banker Mykola Laguna, agrarian oligarch Oleg Bakhmatyuk, owner of chemical plants Dmytro Firtash, and ex-owner of PrivatBank Gennady Bogolyubov.
This is reported by the publication 360ua.news .
Austria has long been a haven for oligarchs and former officials who had wealth of dubious origin and wanted to hide it in the legal financial institutions of a decent European state. Numerous journalistic investigations have repeatedly recorded on the streets of Vienna the former chairman of the Constitutional Court Oleksandr Tupytsky, the former chairman of the National Bank Kyrylo Shevchenko and his associate, deputy chairman of the board of Ukrgasbank Denys Chernyshov, the former People's Deputy Andriy Kholodov, the former leader of the Nashi party, and the pro-Russian politician Yevgeny Murayev. They are all charged with a number of criminal offenses, from corruption to high treason. Recently, this company was joined by Denys Komarnytsky, the former "watcher" of Kyiv's illegal construction schemes, who was accused of creating a criminal organization in the capital's city hall. And each of them is a potential candidate for extradition to Ukraine.
However, much bigger fish are the big oligarchs who have withdrawn billions of dollars from Ukraine and are now trying to avoid Ukrainian justice in Vienna. This is primarily about the ex-banker Mykola Laguna. The estimated amount of losses caused to the state due to the bankruptcy of Delta Bank and the withdrawal schemes that accompanied it is over 50 billion UAH. In addition, the “short list” obviously includes Dmytro Firtash (who has been in Austria for 10 years due to the reluctance of the local authorities to grant permission for his extradition to the USA, where he is accused of corruption deals, and in Ukraine under sanctions), as well as Oleh Bakhmatyuk (accused of illegal withdrawal of refinancing funds and bankruptcy of banks) and Gennady Bogolyubov (accused of complicity in the withdrawal of funds from Privatbank).
Austrian courts have repeatedly refused to extradite criminals accused in Ukraine in recent years. However, the situation has now probably changed to the point where agreements reached at a lower level can be voiced during a meeting of state leaders. 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 are the return of the former head of the State Food Grain Corporation Petro Vovchuk, the former propagandist from Medvedchuk's pool Kyrylo Molchanov, the scandalous former developer Anatoly Voitsekhovsky. In addition, the case of the extradition of propagandist Anatoly Shariy to Ukraine has probably moved from a dead point. This gives a much greater chance that - even under the guise of a Russian passport - large-caliber Ukrainian oligarchs will not escape extradition from Austria.
Mykola Lagun: Delta Bank bankruptcy, Russian connections and 50 billion in debts
After the collapse of Delta in 2015, Mykola Lahun found himself under investigation on a number of charges related to embezzlement of bank funds and tax evasion. Back in 2012–2013, he organized illegal lending of hundreds of millions of hryvnias to companies under his control, which led to losses of over 1 billion hryvnias - these funds actually disappeared from the bank. In 2015, already on the verge of bankruptcy, the banker allegedly failed to declare UAH 153.5 million in income received from a foreign company and failed to pay taxes on UAH 33 million.
According to Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, the total losses from Laguna's activities amount to the equivalent of more than 1.2 billion euros (over 50 billion UAH). The investigation and auditors at Kroll found that more than $1 billion was withdrawn through a network of more than 50 offshore companies - in Cyprus, Hong Kong, Panama, the Seychelles, Britain and other countries. Many of these firms had beneficiaries or managers associated with Laguna itself.
To avoid liability, Lahun initiated his own bankruptcy as an individual. He filed a petition with the Kyiv Commercial Court, acknowledging debts of approximately UAH 7 billion, of which UAH 6 billion he proposed to write off, and the rest to be paid over several hundred years from his symbolic salary in Vienna (about UAH 14,000 per month, or EUR 300).
However, he himself has been living in Austria since 2022, where he fled to avoid arrest. In October 2024, Mykola Laguna was officially put on the international wanted list for failing to appear at court hearings (he appears online from Vienna). Despite this, the Ukrainian authorities have still not managed to achieve his extradition or at least freeze the ex-banker's assets. Moreover, it seems that Laguna felt quite comfortable on Austrian territory: until 2022, he traveled between Ukraine and Austria without hindrance, and his numerous assets (land plots, financial and insurance companies, etc.) remained under his control and generated profits.
Another resonant aspect is Laguna's ties to Russian business . In the 2000s, one of Delta Bank's investors was Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), one of the current shadow "negotiators" on "peace agreements" with Russia. According to journalists, Dmitriev and Laguna stood together at the origins of Delta's growth, with Dmitriev attracting funds, including state-owned Russian funds, and Laguna launching an aggressive expansion of the business - not only in Ukraine, but also in Russia and Belarus.
Even after fleeing to Austria, Lagun continues to do business in the occupied Crimea - in particular, he owns real estate and agricultural assets in Yalta, registered under Russian law, through front persons. Direct cooperation with the aggressor country did not prevent him from avoiding Ukrainian sanctions. Unlike many other oligarchs who fell under NSDC sanctions for money laundering and ties to the Russian Federation, Lagun's name was absent from the sanctions lists for a long time. Only in February 2025, after another wave of publications demanding that Lagun be given advice, did this issue move forward - in Ukraine they started talking about the possibility of imposing sanctions on him and intensifying cooperation with Austria regarding his case.
Dmytro Firtash: a titanic case and an endless extradition saga
The owner of Group DF is arguably the most prominent Ukrainian exile in Austria. A former gas magnate and industrialist, Firtash has been living in Vienna since 2014, awaiting the resolution of his numerous legal problems. In June 2021, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine imposed sanctions on Firtash, accusing him of involvement in a 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 at the request of the FBI on charges of international bribery. American investigators claim that the businessman paid a multimillion-dollar bribe to Indian officials in order to obtain permits to develop ilmenite deposits (a raw material for titanium) in India - with a view to further exporting titanium to the United States. Firtash rejects these accusations, claiming political subtext (he hinted that the real reason was his knowledge of Ukrainian-Russian gas schemes and possible interest in him as a potential witness in the cases of Putin’s entourage).
The process of extraditing Firtash to the United States has turned into a protracted legal battle. Initially, an Austrian court agreed to the oligarch’s extradition (in 2017, the Austrian Supreme Court ruled in favor of extradition), but the defense filed appeals with other authorities, and the extradition was blocked. Firtash himself, meanwhile, was released on an unprecedented bail of 125 million euros, a record amount for Austria.
At the same time, new claims are also brewing in Ukraine against Firtash. In 2023, the Security Service of Ukraine reported the businessman to the authorities on suspicion of large-scale theft of gas from the Ukrainian gas transportation system in the amount of up to $485 million in 2016–2022.
Oleg Bakhmatyuk: "Egg King" and an Unreachable NABU Indictee
Once the owner of the agricultural holding UkrLandFarming and the Avangard group (which made him the largest egg producer in Ukraine, for which Bakhmatyuk was nicknamed the “egg tycoon”), he also controlled two banks – VAB Bank and Financial Initiative. Both of these banks went bankrupt in 2014–2015, leaving behind multi-billion-dollar debts to depositors and the state.
Bakhmatyuk immediately became the object of attention of anti-corruption agencies: the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) suspects him of withdrawing UAH 1.2 billion of the NBU stabilization loan issued to VAB Bank in 2014 - this money disappeared before bankruptcy, but the debts remained. In 2019, Bakhmatyuk was indicted in absentia on suspicion of embezzlement of bank funds, and the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court arrested the businessman in absentia in 2020. However, the oligarch himself had already left Ukraine by that time. According to open data, since the end of 2019 he has lived mainly in Vienna, where he has business interests and where a number of his companies are registered.
Kyiv has repeatedly tried to secure his extradition, but so far to no avail. In March 2023, an Austrian court refused Ukraine's request to extradite Oleg Bakhmatyuk, calling it "unacceptable." The businessman himself, in a comment to the press, welcomed this decision and stated that the criminal prosecution by NABU was allegedly initiated by the previous leadership of the Bureau for personal reasons.
In parallel, an episode with a bribe : according to the investigation, in 2015, Bakhmatyuk gave a bribe of $5.5 million to the head of the State Fiscal Service, Roman Nasirov, for VAT reimbursement to the enterprises of his holding. Nasirov himself, as is known, is also currently in the dock.
International legal context
Formally, extradition is regulated by bilateral treaties and international conventions. Ukraine has a legal assistance agreement with Austria, but it is not a member of the EU, so the European arrest warrant (used by countries within the European Union) does not apply to Ukrainian fugitives. Each request is considered individually by the Austrian court, and the defendants’ lawyers actively use the possibilities of appeal. A common tactic is to prove that the case is political in nature, and therefore extradition is inadmissible (European states cannot extradite a person by law if the persecution is politically motivated or threatens to violate his rights). For example, Denys Komarnytskyi is likely to follow this path, as both Firtash and Bakhmatyuk have hinted.
In Laguna, the situation is different: he cannot refer to political aspects, since he has never had ambitions in politics. Moreover, in Austria he can generally be “on the Russian line”: After all, his de facto mistress, the ex-chairman of the board of Delta Bank, Elena Popova, is guaranteed to have a Russian passport, and one of the reasons for obtaining it was probably the desire to avoid extradition to Ukraine).
One of the reasons why the issue of the return of the oligarchs was raised right now could be a development in the cases of the fugitives themselves in Ukraine. It is possible that Zelensky has information about the intensification of negotiations with Austria regarding individual persons - perhaps at the level of the prosecutors general offices or special services. His statement could have been intended to give these backroom processes a public impetus. The case of Mykola Laguna in this case looks “the simplest”: quite specific financial losses, most of which the state was forced to cover, a number of proven episodes worth tens of millions of dollars, clear assets that can easily be arrested and given to repay debts. And at the same time, no political overtones. Laguna 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 “quick case” to launch the process and demonstrate the effectiveness of joint efforts.
Regardless of the specific results, the very fact of the Ukrainian president's public address creates additional pressure on fugitive oligarchs and demonstrates the state's determination not to leave financial crimes committed against the Ukrainian people unpunished. In times of war, issues of justice take on special importance, and Ukraine is likely ready to use all available tools to achieve it.
