Corruption and Intrigues
June 8-15. Golyk escapes justice, Shabunin-gate continues, assassinations, Naiem's cunning plan, people smuggling, organ smuggling, petrol smuggling
Golyk has lift-off
On June 14, it emerged that the infamous Yury Golyk has left the country on the basis of a ‘disability’. While ordinary Ukrainians drown, are shot or desperately drive through the border hidden in trucks and buses, corrupt government-connected figures leisurely evade investigation.
I recall to the reader’s attention that Golyk is the Zelensky-connected businessman implicated in high level construction corruption from 2022 onwards. He was in charge of the ‘Big Build’ infrastructure project, which was pre-war Zelensky’s main claim to glory.
It was also often called ‘the big steal’, with roads constructed for many times more than the equivalent cost in Poland, where wages are also several times higher.
Long after investigation of him for large-scale corruption began in 2022, Golyk was observed driving leisurely for top-level meetings at the president’s office.
But in late May of this year, SAPO (Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office) raided the NABU (National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine) because it had been alerted that certain NABU officials were leaking crucial information about the case to Golyk himself, allowing him to stay out of jail. I wrote about this crucial drama here.
Shabunin’s many frontlines
Vitalii Shabunin is one of the premier ‘Sorosites’ in Ukraine. He and his comrades have publicly taken the side of SAPO against NABU. They claim that the Golyk case has shown that the NABU is near-hopelessly overrun by the Zelensky-Yermak network.
On June 10, David Sakvarelidze entered the fray. He is one of Saakashvili’s lawyers, former deputy head prosecutor of Ukraine, and currently an official at the NABU. It all started with a Shabunin post on facebook that complained about how purges at NABU have not gone far enough. Readers will recall from my article on the topic that so far, the only dismissal due to Golyk-gate has been the (Georgian) Gizo Uglava:
I will recall that Uglava can be dismissed based on the results of an official investigation. Meanwhile, we are witnessing an active campaign to save Uglava in Telegram channels. There, narratives are being pushed that this is Kubrakov's revenge, Sakvarelidze is shouting about "lies and slander," and "political scientists for 100 bucks" are trying to convince us that "it's not all so clear-cut," etc.
Sakvarelidze replied with the following screed. For context, the ‘Georgian invasion’ of Ukraine’s government, led by the irrepressible (or not) Mikhail Saakashvili, began in 2015:
I wasn't planning to mention your last name, but since it's come to this, I'll ask: what are you dissatisfied with? Because of your personal vendetta/dislike Vitaly, should a man who has nothing to do with it be forced to smear his face with shit? Or perhaps I need to check with you on what and where to say things and what opinion to have about a person I’ve known for 20 years? It's clear that you have your own personal and long-standing stance towards us, Georgians, starting initially from 2015. But personal hatred should not be mixed with professional conduct. It’s petty and juvenile.
Shabunin isn’t only fighting against the Georgian fifth column. I’ve written here and here at length about the President’s Office war on Shabunin. They have tried to bring him down with various proof that he has evaded mobilization. Recently, a case has also been brought against him that he has been driving around Ukraine on a splendid big car that was donated for frontline purposes.
I must say I do find some satisfaction in watching it unfold - Shabunin, the liberal ultramilitarist who constantly shames working class Ukrainians for ‘draft-dodging’, may himself be ruined on the basis of his (doubtlessly real) draft-dodging. Sadly, of course, those bringing the accusations are just as guilty. Nor is it possible to be excited about the fact that the only real political sin is not signing up for war.
In any case, on June 14, chief of the general staff Anatoly Bargilevich demanded criminal responsibility for the military unit which gave Shabunin fake military documents. The past months have seen a vigorous purge of the army, replacing key figures with those subservient to Zelensky (read: Yermak). Syrsky is only the most visible such example.
Shabunin isn’t alone. On June 12, strana reported that Egor Sobolev, a rather scandalous maidanite-anticommunist-anticorruption warrior, is being investigated by for desertion and embezzlement of military income he received while not actually in the army.
On that topic, on June 12 the most recently appointed speaker for the AFU’s southern region announced his resignation. This post sees a particularly high turnover. I will update the readers if any titillating new details about this emerge.
Naiem Escapes Responsibility
Onto another Sorosite bigwig - Mustafa Naiem (often spelled Nayyem), the Afghan-Ukrainian journalist whose facebook post started euromaidan back in 2013. For those curious about his background, his father was the minister of health of Afghanistan until the communist coup, and they moved to Moscow in 1987.
Loyal followers of my twitter will know that Naiem, one of the state department’s favorites, resigned from his post as head of the State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development on June 10.
His facebook post announcing the restoration blamed various government attacks on his position, but didn’t mention the elephant in the room - the ongoing scandal over the fact that his gargantuan concrete protections of energy objects have been a corrupt waste of time. Relatively pro-Zelensky political experts like Yury Romanenko have been the ones most vigorously promoting the scandal over Naiem’s incompetent concrete installations.
I wrote about that developing scandal back here, and my posts on Zelensky’s ongoing war against pro-US officials often predicted Naiem’s removal. The removal of Oleksandr Kubrakov, Naiem’s fellow Sorosite and partner in infrastructure ‘restoration’, brought huge indignation from the western press and diplomats, and made it clear that Naiem’s removal was a matter of time.
Anyway, as for his cunning plan - according to strana.ua sources, Naiem resigned right before he was due to undergo an audit of his work protecting electricity generation objects on June 12. Naturally, the audit would have hardly been very positive. Naiem had been planning to go to Berlin on June 11-12 for the annual conference on Ukraine’s post-war restoration, but this audit made it impossible. When he found out about the audit on June 10 from prime minister Denys Shmyhal (a paragon of loyalty to Zelensky-Yermak), he resigned.
No doubt the western press will have much to say about this as well. Naiem was one of their most important agents left in the government.
Organ smuggling
On June 14, Ukraine’s liberal (read: no need to worry about devious Russian disinformation) publication LB.ua confirmed that Mykhailo Zagriychuk, former deputy minister of health, has been arrested for organ smuggling, along with 10 other doctors. Until his arrest, Zagriychuk was the head of the department of transplantation and surgery of abdominal organs at the Heart Institute. I wrote about this case when rumors first emerged not long ago.
Here is a translation of one of the crimes he is being charged with (my bolding):
Actions as provided by parts two, three, or four of this article, committed by a group of persons under a prior conspiracy, or participation in transnational organizations involved in such activities -- previous items include the removal of anatomical materials from a person through coercion or deception for the purpose of transplantation, such actions committed against a person who was in a helpless state or in financial or other dependence on the perpetrator, illegal trade of human anatomical materials.
As a result of this arrest, all organ transplants have been halted over the past two weeks, for fear of being charged as well.
What does this arrest mean? Was Ukrainian law enforcement simply blissfully ignorant of these horrendous practices until recently? Hard to believe, given the magnitude of the official arrested.
One popular Ukrainian telegram channel speculated that this group was arrested because they were an ‘independent group’. One is reminded of the arrest of the ‘Tornado’ batallion back in 2015 for various racketeering, sexual assault and murder charges that all the other juridically safe batallions (Azov, Aidar and so on) were documented doing by the UN. When it comes to corruption and crime, those operating outside of the main cartel - not outside of the so-called ‘law’ - need to be liquidated.
Colleagues raised the issue of "black transplantology," which is currently thriving in Ukraine, and we were the first to provide insider information about this problem. Our source reports that the organ trade market is expanding at an unprecedented rate. If traced back, the Western lobby has been preparing for these events in Ukraine. They pushed through the law №5610 via the Servant of the People and "grey curator" of the entire medical case, Mykhailo Radutsky, and now they are pushing a bill about "weed." These laws allow them to "legalize" their activities. Everyone understands that it's not just about properly "extracting organs" in field hospitals from soldiers and civilians, but also that exporting organs requires paperwork from medical officials, supervised by Liashko-Radutsky, and similarly for distributing "weed," a paper from medical officials will be needed. Another point to ponder is why there are now more foreigners in medical battalions.
—-Legitimate, Ukrainian telegram channel with over 1 million subscribers. July 10, 2022.
Assassinations
On June 10, Gennadiy Mazegor, the former mayor of Kupyansk, died in a Moscow hospital after an assassination attempt. He had been shot in the Belgorod region of Russia on June 7, which was proudly reported by Ukraine’s GUR (Military Intelligence).
On the next day, Maksym Denschyk, a regional official in the city council who had warned 1 month earlier that the Zaporozhzhye governor Ivan Fedorov wanted ‘revenge’ on him was found killed. Fedorov was appointed head of the regional military administration by Zelensky in February 2024.
The shooting took place in the city center, and the shooter has not been found. Eyewitnesses report that all the bullets were shot into Denschyk’s stomach.
Below is Denschyk’s May 2 Facebook post where he accused Fedorov of seeking ‘revenge’ against him, that Fedorov had sent many ‘threats’ to him and sought to remove him from his post. He does not explain the reasons for Fedorov’s hatred.
‘I DECLARE, that in case of any criminal investigation of myself by law enforcement - this will be revenge against me for my position!’ After the post, he was sacked. Following his assassination, Fedorov made a post blaming organized crime.
Clues
On June 9, the parliamentary temporary investigative committee on fortification structures announced that 30 criminal cases have been opened due to corruption in construction of defense lines. Mikhail Bondar, the man in charge of the committee, stated the following:
There are now about 30 criminal proceedings opened concerning the embezzlement of funds during the construction of fortification structures. Members of the commission from "Servant of the People," hearing such figures, immediately tried to defend the fund managers. And the lion's share involves the military-civil administrations, which are part of the presidential vertical. "Next time, we must receive data on each case: under which article, who is involved, and what amount
Note the target of Bondar’s ire - the heads of the regional military administrations.
Recall that the aforementioned Fedorov, who may have assassinated a critic, is just such a figure, in the frontline region of Zaporizhzhie.
Finally, I remind the reader that the Golyk case started because of the infrastructural embezzlement of the head of the Dnepropetrovsk regional military administration, Valentyn Reznichenko.
The trade in human life - and petrol
With mobilization harsher than ever for most, business is booming for some.
On June 12, a junior sergeant in the Odessa region was arrested for mobilization corruption. The area, firmly under control of the ultra-corrupt Trukhanov (a close associate of Zelensky, I wrote about him here), is famous for being Ukraine’s worst when it comes to mobilization.
The man arrested was a certain Makarsky, who was already famous for featuring in videos of violent mobilization in the region, where he often yelled about how he is a veteran who has just returned from the frontline. Many doubted him on that account at the time. Apparently, $3000 USD was enough for the good Jr Sergeant to let you off.
Meanwhile, strana published its own investigation into Odessa’s seedy mobilization scene on June 13. It noted the fact that certain businesses, such as the ‘Knizhka’ market and the ‘Arkady’ leisure complex, mobilization officers are never to be seen, allowing customers to freely relax. According to strana’s sources, it costs from $10,000 USD per month for businesses not to be bothered by mobilization officers in the city.
Other trades are also flourishing. Strana wrote on June 9 that dozens of criminal cases have been opened over large-scale theft and smuggling of fuel in the army. Its military sources claimed that the problem is serious and widespread.
Meanwhile, on June 8 border patrol arrested the owner of a hotel in the Zakarpattya region who helped Ukrainians cross the border into Slovakia. The price - $8000 per person.
The SBU also arrested an ex-parliamentarian on June 7 for making money off draft-dodgers. During the raid, the SBU found 40 million hryvnias at her residence. She made 100,000 USD a month by forging medical documents allowing men to leave Ukraine. Perhaps Golyk was one of her clients. Although in that case, it wouldn’t have been arrested.