28.04.2025
Investigations
USD 3 million to be paid by the Ministry of Justice for legal services
Ukraine is to spend $3 million on foreign lawyers to protect its national interests in negotiations with the United States over the extraction of strategic minerals, but no one knows who these lawyers are, where they are from, or why they were chosen. The Ministry of Justice, which signed this agreement, is hiding the name of the company, its details, and the details of the contract.
And while the Ministry of Justice spends budget funds on non-transparent contracts, a criminal scheme is flourishing in the Kharkiv region under the leadership of lawyer Valentyn Melnyk and his godfather, Ministry of Justice official Dmytro Volyk. In 2021-2025 alone, their “black registrars” : Zotkin, Zhbadynskyi, and Teslenko, carried out 15,440 illegal real estate transactions, earning between UAH 12 million and UAH 500 million. Fake documents, blackmail, bribes, and ignoring complaints – all under the roof of the Ministry of Justice.
A detailed analysis is below.
Background: what is known about the deal?
Ukraine is preparing to sign a strategically important agreement with the United States on mining. To protect national interests, a foreign law firm will be involved in the negotiations. Which one and why foreign lawyers were chosen over Ukrainian specialists is a rhetorical question.
After a few weeks of persistent journalistic inquiries, an official response was received from the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, signed by Deputy Minister Svitlana Tereshchenko. The document revealed the following:
- There was no tender for the selection of a law firm. In 2022, a simplified procedure was introduced that allows the Ministry of Justice to select the contractor independently.
- The selection criteria are “experience with Ukraine and knowledge of the specifics of US law”.
- The deadline for selecting a company is April 15, 2025, meaning that the decision has already been made.
However, the Ministry of Justice did not disclose the name of the selected company or its details. The letter also ignored a number of other questions, including: “What is the form of ownership and country of origin of the company? What mandate has it been given? Who in Ukraine has authorized the company to represent the interests of the state? To whom will the company report?”
Instead, the document states that the foreign law firm was engaged to “protect the national interests of Ukraine during negotiations with the American side.” This wording is puzzling: how can a foreign firm protect Ukraine’s interests if even the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has stated that it knows nothing about the involvement of foreign companies in this deal?
Another question that Ukrainians were interested in was the amount that the country paid for the services of the mysterious company. So, here’s the answer: according to the data we received, Ukraine spent $3 million. For comparison, this is approximately 120 million hryvnias, an amount that could have been used to rebuild destroyed schools and hospitals or purchase equipment for the Armed Forces.
The circle has closed: who is responsible?
To find out who was behind the deal, the journalists contacted various government agencies. The answers varied: The President’s Office said they were not aware of any foreign companies being involved. The Cabinet of Ministers redirected the question to the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Economy, claiming that they were not the custodians of this information. The Verkhovna Rada returned the request to the Cabinet for the same reasons. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that it had no information on the involvement of foreign lawyers in mineral negotiations.
It turns out that no state institution is taking responsibility for a deal that costs Ukraine millions of dollars and involves strategically important resources. This looks like a classic “blurred responsibility” scheme, when no one knows who makes the decision, but the money disappears.
What is known about the Department of Special Operations of the Ministry of Justice?
The organization of this agreement is partly related to the activities of the Department of Special Operations at the Ministry of Justice, which reports to the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanishyna. This department receives significant funding from the budget, but its functions remain unclear.
It seems that this department is the one that is responsible for “special” contracts that are not subject to public disclosure. Could this be related to the kickbacks reported in the media? It’s only a guess for now, but the lack of transparency of the contracts only fuels suspicions.
What is really going on in the Ministry of Justice?
As we can see, the activities of the Ministry of Justice are shrouded in mysterious circumstances that point to systems of kickbacks, corruption, and schemes within the agency. For example, the Anti-Raider Commission at the Ministry, which is supposed to protect citizens from illegal registration actions, has been considering a complaint about the raiding of our NGO Non-Stop for 3 months. For almost a month, they did not ignore the request for a decision made at the last meeting, and finally provided a response, the Director of the Department (Head of the Office) of the Office for Combating Raiding Ivan Korodyuk said that “the order of the Ministry of Justice based on the results of the consideration of the Complaint is in the process of signing.” It takes almost a month to sign a document? Interestingly, there are no updates on the status of the complaint on the official website, where they should be published as soon as possible and no later than a day after the decision is made.
The policy of officials from the Ministry of Justice’s Strategic Communications Department is also surprising. Instead of implementing an effective PR strategy for the Ministry and establishing communication with representatives of NGOs, journalists, and citizens in general, the recent head of the Department, Alen Bobrov, is rating our videos on social media, while simultaneously slandering us and, of course, spreading false information from paid-for articles by pro-Russian dumps. He talks about fictitious ties to Medvedchuk, working for the Russian Federation, and everything in this direction. So, does disclosing the schemes and connections of top representatives of the Ministry of Justice mean automatic aiding and abetting Russia? Well, we probably need to investigate the activities of the Ministry’s Strategic Communications Department and its head, Bobrov, in more detail. So stay tuned for updates.
“Black registrars” under the cover of the Ministry of Justice and Melnyk’s lawyer
Earlier, we wrote about an organized criminal group operating in the Kharkiv region that systematically appropriates citizens’ real estate through illegal registration actions. This scheme is headed by lawyer Valentyn Melnyk and his godfather, Dmytro Volyk, the head of the notary department in Kharkiv region. Their activities cover Kharkiv, Dergachiv, Malodanylivka, and Solonitseve communities and cause hundreds of millions of hryvnias in damage.
Lawyer Melnyk created a powerful corruption network using his connections in the government. His methods are coercion, blackmail, bribery and intimidation. Melnyk controls the market of registration services in Kharkiv region, forcing citizens to pay inflated rates for his “services”. The cost of one registration action starts from USD 800 and in complicated cases reaches USD 50,000.
In the period from 2021 to 2025, only three key registrars – Serhii Zotkin, Oleh Zhbadynskyi, and Ihor Teslenko – performed 15,440 illegal registration actions, earning between UAH 12 and 500 million. This scheme could not have existed without the cover of Ministry of Justice officials, BTI employees, and law enforcement agencies, which is why we conducted a detailed investigation exposing the connections of the “black registrars” of Melnyk and Volyk’s group.
Key players: registrars involved
Serhii Zotkin. Registrar of Dergachi City Council, one of the main perpetrators of the scheme. Between 2021 and 2025, he carried out 3184 registration actions, most of which have signs of “gray” or “black” registrations. His services cost from $800 to $50,000 per action. In five years, the volume of its operations indicates multimillion-dollar profits.
- 2021: 4614 actions, including 1211 by Zotkin
- 2022: 816 actions, Zotkin – 136
- 2023: 2460 actions, Zotkin – 835
- 2024: 1877 actions, Zotkin – 715
- 2025: 555 actions, Zotkin – 287
Zotkin’s violations were detected only during 2024-2025:
- Lack of identification of applicants: No confirmation that the applicants personally submitted documents.
- Lack of BTI certificates: Only 3 cases of submission of certificates, although they are required for old title documents.
- Black-and-white scanned copies of documents make it impossible to verify their authenticity.
- Illegal dates: Applications were filed before the technical passports were issued, making the registrations null and void.
Oleh Zhbadynskyi from Malodanylivka village council performed 8030 registration actions in 2021-2025. He specializes in large and expensive orders, often violating the law. For example, discrepancies in the area of property have been noticed, unfinished construction projects are registered without proper documents, technical passports do not comply with the regulatory framework, and property is divided in violation of the rules for assigning addresses.
Zhbadynskyi worked under the direct supervision of Melnyk and Volyk, fulfilling orders that could cost tens of thousands of dollars. His activity indicates the systemic nature of the violations and the flow of income.
Ihor Teslenko from the Solonitsy village council has carried out 4226 registration actions. He often works together with Zotkin, increasing the scale of the scheme. In 2024 alone, there were significant and unjustified changes in the area of real estate that did not comply with any regulatory or legal documents, a significant number of cases of registration of unfinished construction projects without declarations and permits, unjustified changes in the description of property, for example, from a residential building to a non-residential building, and the use of technical passports to acquire ownership. In 2025, Teslenko stopped his activity, but his colleagues continued the schemes.
Despite the known facts of manipulation of registers, representatives of the Eastern Interregional Department of the Ministry of Justice, in particular, the head of the department Iryna Svystun, Kharkiv City Council represented by Deputy Mayor Serhii Kuzmin and heads of specialized departments, continue to ignore the group’s activities. According to our materials, the above-mentioned registrars have already had their access to the registers restricted, and the authorized persons of the Kharkiv District Prosecutor’s Office have entered information into the URPTI under No. 42025222130000032, under Part 1 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. However, will this finally stop Melnyk and Volyk’s activities?
Did you witness a crime?
Let us know about it. We will help protect the violated rights!
Share the post:
Last news
-
14 May 2025Business of Occupiers Kharkiv
-
6 May 2025Ecology Money laundering
-
2 May 2025Investigations Kharkiv Tenders
-
21 April 2025Corruption Tenders