20.02.2025
Investigations
Kharkiv
How the Ministry of Youth and Sports became the main link in cases of mobilization evasion
How the sports industry lives in frontline Kharkiv
Under the supervision of the head of the Department for Youth and Sports of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, Kostiantyn Ananchenko, and his partner, MP from the Servant of the People party, Maria Mezentseva, a large-scale embezzlement of funds allocated for training camps for athletes was carried out in the Kharkiv region.
The scheme is simple: Ananchenko and his team organized tenders for the money allocated for the development of sports in the frontline region, where contractors associated with them became the winners. Part of the budget funds went to fictitious projects, while the other part went to personal accounts. As a result, sports facilities remained unfinished or never came into existence, and young people in the region were not given the opportunity to play sports, which directly contributed to increased social tension in these areas.
By the way, the state funding for the STW in Kharkiv region in 2023 amounted to more than UAH 50 million. However, in reality, as you may have already realized, most of the money was spent not on real training, but on fictitious events organized only to gain access to budget funds.
Trainings that never took place, participants who did not exist, and funds that were supposed to be used for the development of sports disappeared into Ananchenko’s corruption flow. The financial statements are closed, and there is no real information on what these funds were spent on.
The heads of sports federations sent fictitious requests to organize training camps that were never actually held. The funds allocated for per diems for athletes – 190 UAH per day – were misappropriated by people who controlled the entire process. Ananchenko himself, his deputy Bairamov and others transferred money among themselves, disguising it as expenses for food, renting halls and other “needs.”
At the same time, in official sources, the Kharkiv authorities justified not holding sports events by the security situation. Neither KhOVA officials, nor the Department of Youth and Sports of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, nor Mezentsev’s “servant”, nor the relevant Ministry of Youth and Sports could answer the question about the disappearance of UAH 50 million. Instead, they continue to rob and literally destroy sports in frontline Kharkiv.
We have submitted materials to the list of regulatory authorities on the facts of misappropriation of funds for the STP and fictitious documentation of the results of the STP. In response, the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office registered a pre-trial investigation under Part 4 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine with the URPI under No. 42025220000000016 dated January 16, 2025. Further, the pre-trial investigation was entrusted to the Kharkiv Regional Police Department No. 1, where the case was safely forgotten. No investigative actions have been carried out, and accordingly, no perpetrators have been brought to justice. All of this is thanks to lobbying by Mezentseva’s servant, who desperately defends the thefts in the sports of Kharkiv region.
In addition, after the investigation began, we began to receive threats from the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Budanov. But is this the first time such a reaction to a disclosure has occurred? So we will continue to investigate new facts and, of course, share the results with you.
How the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine launders the budget through fictitious tenders
285 tenders worth UAH 13 million announced by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine (MoYS) were won by entrepreneur Serhiy Cherskoy, who is a de facto protégé of the current minister, Matviy Bidnyi. The businessman has become a de facto monopolist at the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine’s tenders, receiving the largest share of procurement.
According to Prozorro, Cherskyi’s company received contracts worth more than UAH 13 million. Most of the procurements were for very small amounts: a few thousand or tens of thousands of hryvnias. But some tenders were huge. For example, in July 2024, Cherskoy won a contract worth 1.67 million hryvnias, and in January 2025, he signed an agreement worth 2.77 million hryvnias.
Most tenders were won without competition. And if there was any, it was fictitious, which makes it seem as if all the tenders were specially set up for Cherskyi’s victory.
Even more suspicious is the fact that in some tenders, Cherskyi’s competition was a private entrepreneur, Serhii Krot, who worked for STIB, a company that turned out to be owned by Cherskyi himself. If this is not a conflict of interest, what is? That is, even the tenders with “competition” were, in fact, just a formality.
In addition to being a businessman, Cherskoy has close ties to people from Donbas, including Vitaly Lavrov, the deputy minister of youth and sports. Lavrov and Cherskoy have known each other since they both worked as sports officials in Donetsk, where Cherskoy was vice president of the Donetsk basketball club and Lavrov was head of the combat sambo federation.
Interestingly, Lavrov is influential in the Ministry of Youth and Sports and oversees digitalization processes, making him an important ally of Chersky. Cherskoy is not only a businessman, but also the coach-operator of the Ukrainian national handball team. Although the man himself does not have a sports career. But why was he chosen for the national team? Perhaps this allows him to legally travel abroad during martial law and regularly visit his family in Vienna.
If this fact is not directly related to a corruption scheme, it looks like another proof of how the state system can be manipulated for one’s own interests. So what is happening to the sports sector during the war and why do top officials ignore the millions of dollars of embezzlement from youth development?
We urge you to report any cases of abuse and embezzlement in the field of sports in your city or to the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
Did you witness a crime?
Let us know about it. We will help protect the violated rights!
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