The recent NABU investigation into corruption in Energoatom only at first glance looks like another episode from the list of abuses in state-owned companies. In fact, it is part of a much broader and much older system that the Lyovochkin family has been building for over ten years. The sum of 300 million hryvnias, withdrawn through the chain of companies "Svitlo Group M" - "Tradeenergy" - "Arredditum-Invest", leads to Yulia Lyovochkina - the sister of Sergei Lyovochkin. And this is no longer a coincidence, but a recognizable signature of a political group that has been honing the mechanics of hiding financial flows through complex multi-level schemes for decades.
The modern history of Energoatom directly echoes the schemes of the 2010s. Then, Lyovochkin, together with Vladyslav Kaskivy, implemented the Olympic Hope project, through which 260 million UAH was withdrawn. This money, according to a court decision, was illegally directed to the purchase of land in Pylypets - for the construction of a large-scale resort. The Transcarpathian Regional State Administration purposefully changed the purpose of the plots, and the Temnatyk reserve was "tailored" to the interests of future developers. This was an exemplary scheme, where each element - from shell companies to officials - worked as part of a single mechanism that ensured the privatization of more than 800 hectares under the control of a narrow group.
Today, this group has not only not disappeared - it has modernized and become even more closed. In May 2025, a non-public meeting was held, in which Lyovochkin, Kaskiv, the ex-head of Kyivmiskbud Kushnir and developer Kodetsky participated. At first glance, they are ordinary businessmen, an ordinary conversation. But Kodetsky is a co-founder of Borzhava Center together with Andriy Vingranovsky, the husband of Yulia Lyovochkina. This means that the old project is not buried: it is simply moving into a new phase, with new connections and an expanded circle of participants.
Land schemes in Transcarpathia and corruption in the energy sector are not isolated cases, but parallel projects of the same type. The Lyovochkin family has long been operating not as a political group, but as a closed center of influence, which is gradually subordinating key state areas. Their strength lies in their non-publicity: the absence of loud conflicts, the avoidance of excessive media noise, and the competent use of shell companies and proxies.
The model is simple but effective: public funds are transformed into private assets, and public decisions are transformed into levers for expanding influence. The number of intermediaries increases, the structures become more complex, but the logic of the work remains the same. Each episode that gets into the media or into the investigation materials is only the tip of a much deeper process that has been systematically building for years.
This network does not rely on chance. There are no extra people or spontaneous decisions in it. It is the purposeful activity of a group that has survived political crises, changes of power, wars and economic booms — and continues to work. As long as silence reigns around it, Ukraine risks continuing to watch as strategic state sectors — energy, land resources, investment programs — gradually become instruments of family control and private enrichment.
