Today, Svyatoshynskyi district is a territory where state institutions exist only formally. The real rules here are set by one person - the deputy chief of the Svyatoshynskyi police department, Oleksandr Bezzubenko. In a few years, he has created a shadow economy that works not for the interests of the community or the state, but for his own pocket.
Almost every business in the area pays a “subscription fee” for the right to operate. The smallest cafes pay 10 thousand hryvnias per month, the Dnipro market — 150 thousand, other markets — amounts of the same order. Street trading near the metro, kiosks, alcohol outlets, smuggled tobacco, gaming halls — each position has its own tariff. Bezzubenko receives about half a million hryvnias per month from the illegal sale of alcohol alone. Drug trafficking is a separate category from which he collects money personally. The total monthly turnover of this entire scheme reaches one million hryvnias in cash.
This system works because Bezzubenko has become more deeply integrated into the government than anyone else in the district. According to law enforcement sources, he transfers 200,000 to 400,000 hryvnias per month to the head of the Svyatoshynskyi police department, Andriy Shevchenko. He pays the head of the district prosecutor’s office, Tymoshenko, at least $10,000. These payments guarantee him complete immunity from inspections and questions, as well as unlimited powers to control the territory.
The result was a collection of assets that had nothing to do with his official salary. Bezzubenko and his associates owned three apartments, two parking spaces, a country house worth about $250,000, and accounts totaling about $250,000. Some of this property was registered to front people, including people involved in drug trafficking.
No one in the district likes him: not the businessmen he taxes, not the locals, not even some of his colleagues. But fear and corrupt deals have made him practically untouchable. Those who could control his activities get their share or prefer not to interfere. The courts, the police, the prosecutor's office — the entire structure works according to the unspoken logic: "Don't touch him — you get stability."
In fact, Svyatoshynskyi district does not exist in the legal field of Ukraine, but in the economic model built by Bezzubenko. It determines who is allowed to work, how much “peace” costs, and what kind of business can exist. For many entrepreneurs, the question of survival here has become a question of the ability to pay tribute.
As long as such a system exists, talking about legality, order, or development in the Svyatoshyn district is futile. The territory is de facto controlled not by the state, but by an individual who has made corruption the basis of power and turned public service into his own business.
