Almost 10 years have passed since the moment when Nelya Kukovalska again became the head of the reserve "Sofia Kyivska". Having become the general director, she builds her empire. Family empire.
This is reported by the editors of the 360UA NEWS
Her first deputy, Vadym Kyrylenko, oversees the entire economic part of the reserve's activities and restoration. He made his relative the head of the economic and operational department, who conducts all purchases. The exhibition and museum part is controlled by Kira Petrachek, whose relatives and friends work under her supervision and somehow interestingly write off money for new exhibitions and all kinds of programs. Kira also takes money for holding any events on the territory of the reserve, setting tariffs in her opinion: free and space.
Kukovalska herself receives important guests, has short meetings with ministers, does not get out of foreign business trips, collects donations for restorations that are difficult to estimate in real money, changed her old Mercedes for a new Lexus.
Fanatic of the "Russian world" in the heart of Ukraine-Russia
For Ukraine, Sophia of Kyiv is not just an architectural monument, included in the UNESCO cultural heritage list. It is a symbol of the continuity of the Ukrainian-Russian state.
Now imagine that the liturgy of the Moscow Patriarch Kirill reigns in the symbol of Ukrainian statehood, which seems to demonstrate the continuity of Russian, not Ukrainian, statehood from the Kiev princes to the present day.
It is clear that such events were held secretly, with the temple closed to visitors. And one of them happened on July 26, 2010.
The website of the Moscow Patriarchate reported that the event was attended by "the head of the State Committee for Nationalities and Religions Yu.P. Bogutskyi, general director of the national reserve "Sofia Kyivska" N.M. Kukovalska". Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv addressed Gundyaev: "Holy Lord and Father! Together with you, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, we have just performed a historic liturgy in a historic place. For 18 years, we have not had such an opportunity."
Of course, they didn't have to, because before Viktor Yanukovych came to power, no one thought of planting a "Russian peace" in Ukraine, not to mention holding a service in St. Sophia's Cathedral. And it became possible only thanks to Ms. Kukovalska.
Moscow Patriarch Kirill then, concluding the prayer, declared: "In this historic place, the cathedral of Kyiv and all Russia, we performed a divine service together... In the entire expanse of Holy Russia, there are one shrine, one saint, and one Church." This saying became part of the efforts to plant a "Russian world" in Ukraine. And today we are experiencing the terrible consequences of such statements.
But this is not the first, and of course not the last such case. Working for her curators from the FSB, in 2009 Nelya Kukovalska tried to steal Ukrainian shrines, under the guise of handing over exhibits of the reserve for the "Holy Rus" exhibition in the Louvre. This, for obvious reasons, happened without coordination with the Ministry of Culture. When the ministry received official requests from the Louvre, officials were shocked.
Mykola Yakovyna, the president of ICOMOS of Ukraine, at that time the deputy minister of culture, responding to this terrible case, stated that Kukovalska's behavior contradicted the principles of professionalism and civic responsibility, and also discredited the lustration process.
Genoese fortress
The National Reserve "Sofia of Kyiv" includes not only the cathedral, but also other architectural monuments in Kyiv and the Genoese fortress in Sudak.
In the fortress, Nelya Kukovalska and Oleksandr Farbey, head of the Sudak Fortress Museum department, conducted archaeological excavations. However, no one put the found artifacts on the record, due to the fact that they were actually stolen.
After the dismissal of Kukovalska, the new management of the reserve tried to check the funds, but Oleksandr Farbey did not allow them, and then resigned.
When the inspection finally took place, it brought disappointing results. It turned out that as many as 8,623 units of exhibits were not taken into account. These were mostly artifacts from excavations conducted between 1997 and 2012, but unaccounted for items discovered as far back as 1965–1973 were also found.
All this material was kept mixed with the considered exhibits, and the numismatic collection was simply placed in an accounting safe, to which the cashiers and guards of the museum had access.
After the exhibits were accounted for, it became clear that all the most valuable exhibits from state funds were sent to the black archeology market, which flourished thanks to Nela Kukovalska.
This is certainly a shocking fact: who would have thought that the most prestigious reserve in the country would sell on the black market objects found by archaeologists absolutely legally and registered according to the rules of excavation?
In total, 523 archaeological finds were lost. Although, probably much more. These figures are mind-boggling, and the market value of what was lost is hard to imagine.
In the course of intensive archaeological activities in the Crimea, Nelya Kukovalska did not forget her curators from Russia. Unique Byzantine lead seals, molovdovula, found in the Fortress Bay of Sudak, were transferred to the State Hermitage Museum, as if for restoration. In fact - forever.
The seals are known from archaeological reports, but their movement is not documented, so it is not clear how these objects crossed the state border of Ukraine. Now the Molvdovuly are referred to in scientific publications as the Hermitage. Quite a generous "gift" from Ms. Kukovalska!
Enrichment of Kukovalska at "Saint Sophia"
Although the director of the reserve cleans up the information about himself, already in 2010 the mass media began to talk about thefts of its decoration. "Sofia Kyivska" is one of those places where money from the country's budget can be appropriated.
The general director of the nature reserve Nelya Kukovalska understands well the value of her post. Where else could she use the phrase “If there was proper funding, we would create paradise!” so often? Forgetting to add that her personal paradise would be somewhere in Dubai.
By the way, Ms. Kukovalska earned money not only at the expense of the state. Businessmen-patrons have always shown a special interest in "Sofia of Kyiv". So Kukovalska easily played on patronage strings. She told how it was possible to get 15 million hryvnias for reconstruction, allocated by one of the most famous businessmen of the country. But this was not enough for her, and she easily inflated the estimate by another 25 million.
Budgetary funds allocated for reconstruction in 2010 practically did not affect the appearance of the reserve. The flow of money from patrons, which does not run out, does not help either. Despite the fact that all this money goes into the pocket of Nela Kukovalska.
For a successful robbery of patrons, Kukovalska even created the Fund for the Development of the National Reserve "Sofia Kyivska", which for some reason is located in her neighbor's apartment, next to her luxurious apartment.
Cyril and St. Andrew's Churches, the Golden Gate and the Sudak Fortress in Crimea are also under the care of her Foundation. Kukovalska has a huge influence in the Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi historical and ethnographic reserve.
You can find out how much you can steal for imitation restoration if you look at the estimates for the restoration of St. Cyril's Church. According to the documents, about 5 million hryvnias of budget funds were spent. But one of the firms estimated its services much cheaper - 500 thousand hryvnias. Only 10% went to preserve the shrine, 90% settled in the pockets of Nela Kukovalska.
Kukovalska buys herself apartments, cars, and law enforcement agencies, it seems, are not too concerned about the origin of the official's funds.
Scheme with the Guest House
The next high-profile scandal happened already in November 2021, when the national reserve "Sofia Kyivska" was supposed to start work on the preservation of Gostinny Dvor (4 Kontraktova ploshcha, Kyiv).
Then, the Minister of Culture Tkachenko literally raided the unfinished Gostiny Dvor construction site and, using a forged "technical passport of the Gostiny Dvor in 1961", "lost" only 10,000 square meters in the center of Kyiv!
"Ukrrestavratsiya", which invested millions of dollars in the reconstruction and construction of Gostiny dvor, but a few years ago due to court manipulations was deprived of the right and opportunity to complete the work, lost the opportunity to finish it, and Tkachenko seized it and transferred "Gostinny dvor" to the balance of "Sofia Kyivska" ".
You can only imagine how many millions of sums from the state budget were spent on construction and reconstruction. "Hostine Dvor" would turn into a "personal feeder" of the Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko and Nela Kukovalska.
But the concessionaires were prevented by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and the National Police, which launched an investigation into the actions of the State Property Fund (PFMU) and the Ministry of Culture.
However, Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko and Director General of the Sofia Kyivska National Reserve Nelya Kukovalska were not bothered by these criminal incidents.
On September 29, 2021, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted order No. 1182-r on the redistribution of budget funds allocated to the Ministry of Culture in the state budget - 2021. Within the framework of this order, 5 million hryvnias should be allocated to the "Guest House" due to the redistribution of budget funds.
Kukovalska's enrichment under the guise of patriotism
Budget expenditures during the war cause a particularly sharp reaction of society regarding their rationality. However, bureaucrats find ways to adapt and find new areas of activity, among which cultural projects occupy a special place.
And so the general director of the National Reserve "Sofia of Kyiv" Nelya Kukovalska expresses her opinion about the importance of preserving Hagia Sophia as a symbol of national identity and for "patriotic" reasons.
"If we lose Sofia, we will lose a sign of our national identity. Sofia is a sign of our nation, it is the place where the state was born", says Nelya Kukovalska, general director of the National Reserve "Sofia of Kyiv", explaining the need for a tender for almost 80 million hryvnias for the restoration of the roof, structural systems and gilding of the domes of Hagia Sophia.
The reason for this was the collapse of the cross on the dome of St. Sophia Cathedral in January 2022. The cross collapsed, despite the fact that it was restored in March 2021.
And again, no one cares that the previous repair carried out under the leadership of Ms. Kukovalska was actually just an imitation, and the money was stolen, as usual, banally. And they need more.
PS Kukovalskaya graduated from the construction department of the Moscow Institute of Railway Transport Engineers in 1983, which in no way makes her either a museologist or a cultural figure. Nevertheless, she has been the general director of the Sofia Kyivska National Nature Reserve since 2000. With a small vacation in 3 years, from 2012 to 2015.
Despite the fact that the then Minister of Culture, Mykhailo Kulinyak, explained the dismissal by the misuse of 1.6 million hryvnias allocated for archaeological excavations on the territory of the reserve, as well as for the opening of the sarcophagus of Yaroslav the Wise and the restoration of the mosaics of the Mykhailo Monastery without coordination with the Ministry of Culture, in 2015, after the re- appointment of Nel Kukovalska, now positions himself as a "victim of Yanukovych's criminal regime".
