The scandal surrounding the assets of Serhii Kosianchuk, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Territorial Service Centre No. 1844 in Zviahel, is gathering momentum. The public and anti-corruption campaigners have drawn attention to numerous discrepancies in his official declaration, the most striking element of which remains the luxury off-road vehicle that the official has been using for the fourth year running.
According to the submitted declaration, Serhiy Kosyanchuk’s total annual income amounted to 665,000 hryvnias. This sum comprises his official salary, social benefits and pension payments. The official’s financial assets appear modest: he holds just over 51,000 hryvnias in bank accounts with PrivatBank and keeps 170,000 hryvnias in cash. The document also lists his son, Vladislav.
However, it is the section on property that raises the most questions among experts. A residential property measuring 141.5 square metres in Zviahel is registered in the name of Halyna Kosianchuk (presumably the official’s mother). The head of the service centre himself, together with his son, holds only a formal right to registration and residence. The situation is similar with the land on which the house stands: it is held for free use, but neither its market value nor its exact area are mentioned at all in the documents.
The central focus of the story remains a 2019 Skoda Kodiaq crossover. Serhiy Kosianchuk has been using this vehicle since 26 October 2021, yet the documents list a completely different person — Ivan Saulevych — as the legal owner. The declaration deliberately or accidentally omits both the value of the car and the precise legal grounds for such use (power of attorney, hire, lease or loan).
“For the NACP, this is a classic case under the section on ‘use of third parties’ property’: it needs to be established whether this is free use exceeding the declaration threshold, an undeclared gift, or whether the car is in fact a gift,” emphasise anti-corruption analysts.
The situation is made particularly piquant by the fact that it is the departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and service centres that are directly responsible for registering vehicles and verifying their owners. Experts are calling on the relevant authorities and the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption to thoroughly investigate this matter, as the long-standing declared use of someone else’s expensive car in the context of direct official duties creates obvious corruption risks and signs of a conflict of interest.