10.06.2025 Investigations

Why Minister Klymenko and Head of the National Police Vyhivskyi are silent about schemes of their subordinates worth millions

The Strategic Investigations Department of the National Police of Ukraine, instead of countering organized crime, directly covers it up. At the center of this story are the head of the DSR, Andriy Rubel, and his subordinate, former chief operative Oleksandr Solovyov, who is currently in a Kyiv pre-trial detention center on suspicion of organizing drug trafficking. But for some reason, the media did not write about this and did not talk about it in the news, which is rather strange, because we are talking about the top management of a law enforcement agency. So what’s the catch? We have collected all the facts to reveal the scale of this corruption web.

Oleksandr Solovyov: from a drug warrior to an organized crime group organizer?

Until recently, Oleksandr Solovyov served as the chief operative of the State Intelligence Service. His career in law enforcement is strikingly diverse: he worked in criminal investigation, drug crime, internal security, and, finally, in the JRD. However, a few months ago, Solovyov was detained by the Security Service of Ukraine on suspicion of committing a crime under Article 307 of the Criminal Code (Illegal production, manufacture, acquisition, storage, transportation, shipment or sale of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues). He is currently in the Kyiv pre-trial detention center.

Interestingly, in 2017, Solovyov was suspended not only from his duties at the National Police’s Department for Combating Drug Crimes, but from law enforcement in general. It seems that the main reason for this was the law enforcement officer’s involvement in illegal activities, as his position at the time allowed him to run million-dollar schemes involving the trafficking of illegal substances.

According to open data, after that Soloyov went into business for a while, working for a number of companies: Bitrum-Pivden PE, EVPS PE, Budenergoremontkomplekt LLC, and Asvit Electrical Company LLC. However, he later returned to law enforcement agencies – first to the Department of Internal Security, and then to the DPR. Who facilitated his return? Probably the current head of the SDR, Andriy Rubel, who has already been recorded as “pulling” people of dubious reputation into the SDR.

Such “personnel somersaults” raise the question: how did a person who was fired under compromising circumstances manage to return to high positions? And why did neither the media nor the media resources of the National Police and the SBU write about the detention of a top law enforcement officer?

According to the sources, Rubel personally asked the SBU leadership not to publish the exposé and to investigate and follow up on the case “quietly,” realizing that along with Soloyov’s reputation, he and their joint schemes to conceal drug trafficking would suffer.

Andriy Rubel: wealth that does not correspond to income

Andriy Rubel, the head of the State Security Service, has long been in the spotlight of journalists because of his wealth, which is difficult to explain with official income. His annual salary is about UAH 1 million, but the property registered to him and his relatives is estimated at tens of millions of hryvnias. Here is what is known about the assets of Rubel’s family:

  • Real estate:
    • A house in Kyiv region with an area of over 200 sqm worth about UAH 10 million.
    • An elite apartment in Kyiv registered in the name of relatives worth UAH 8-10 million.
    • Three land plots with an area of 1200, 1000 and 4000 sqm.
    • A 171-square-meter apartment in Kyiv, purchased in 2018 for UAH 3.9 million, which is significantly below the market value. According to Rubel, the money for the purchase was given to him by his father, a pensioner with a salary of UAH 9,638.
  • Vehicle fleet:
    • Lexus RX350 (2009, worth over UAH 3 million).
    • Audi A6 and Audi Q7, allegedly purchased with his father’s pension.
    • Porsche Cayenne, owned by Rubel’s mother-in-law, Tetiana Nikitina.
    • A Lexus GX 470 and another Audi Q7 registered to Rubel’s aunt, Valentyna Vikhor, who has no official sources of income for such purchases.
  • Cash:
    • According to the 2023 declaration, Rubel’s family has 83,000 EUR and 21,000 USD in cash.
    • Rubel’s wife, according to investigations, keeps hundreds of thousands of dollars, hryvnias and euros.

Interestingly, Rubel lives in the elite cottage community Leleka, where the owner of the house is formally a pensioner named Valentyna Vykhor. Her modest income does not explain her house or expensive cars. The situation is similar with Rubel’s mother-in-law, Tetyana Nikitina, who owns luxury real estate in the Carpathians and expensive cars.

Rubel’s ties to organized crime

Another high-profile scandal involving the SDR and Rubel personally was the escape of businessman Denys Komarnytskyi abroad. Komarnitsky, who is wanted by the NABU for embezzlement in the Kyiv City Council, was able to leave Ukraine with the assistance of the SDR officers in Zakarpattia region. Journalist Mykhailo Tkach found out that the operation to smuggle Komarnitsky to Romania was organized with the participation of four people with SBU IDs, two National Police officers and one local deputy. It is interesting that Rubel used to be the head of the Transcarpathian police, where Komarnitsky “disappeared”. Komarnitsky.

According to NABU, Komarnytskyi is the organizer of corruption schemes in the Kyiv City Council, where he “manipulated” votes in favor of controlled companies, receiving land and tenders. Rubel, in turn, “covered” these schemes, receiving a share of the transactions.

Interestingly, Rubel also recruited his close associates to the SDR. For example, his brother-in-law Vitalii Trotsenko is currently the chief operative, and Oleksandr Tsyvilskyi is responsible for the Komarnytskyi case at the NABU. Is it a coincidence that people close to Rubel are at the center of such high-profile events?

Rubel has long been acting in the interests of the Monakivtsi organized crime group, which is engaged in the shadow production of excisable goods, smuggling, gray grain exports, illegal gambling, mining and seizure of key assets of Ukraine.

In addition, under the leadership and personal assistance of the law enforcement officer, activists are systematically pressured to disseminate information “unwanted” by the man. For example, under mysterious circumstances, the car of the head of the NGO “Non-Stop” Kyrylo Yakovets was found to be equipped with listening devices and geoposition tracking. And later, the vehicle was destroyed by arson right at the parking lot in the center of the capital.

So is it true that the top of the National Police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine still do not notice Rubel’s own criminal empire created within the JSR? Are there really no cases in Ukraine that require urgent intervention other than covering up drug trafficking and gray smuggling and casino schemes?

Our goal is not to let these cases disappear from the public eye. That is why we demand a response and will continue to disseminate the information we have found until we get real publicity and investigation.

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