Ihor Kushnir siphoned off tens of billions from Kyivmiskbud and left 20 thousand investors without housing
Ihor Kushnir, head of the municipal enterprise Kyivmiskbud, demonstrates a striking confidence in his own impunity. He hardly seems seriously concerned about returning the billions of hryvnias siphoned from Kyiv’s city budget and defrauded investors.
Ukrainian society has witnessed a cynical spectacle in which the official responsible for a massive crisis involving two dozen frozen construction projects and more than 20,000 deceived investors chose not to face accountability, but instead to climb Mount Everest. The stunt was widely publicized, even noted on Wikipedia, but for those whose life savings are trapped in unfinished projects, it became a symbol of arrogance and impunity.
Experts inside Kyivmiskbud itself estimate the financial abyss facing the company at an astronomical 24 billion hryvnias. Against this backdrop, the Kyiv City Council’s refusal to provide one billion in additional capitalization appeared logical — but hardly a solution to the company’s dire problems. Kushnir’s disappearance in the summer of last year, coinciding with the peak of the crisis, only deepened public panic. Soon, however, it emerged that the company’s head was not in hiding but scaling the world’s highest peak — a revelation that sparked outrage across Ukraine, especially given the wartime travel restrictions imposed on most citizens.
Behind the façade of a municipal enterprise lies a tangled network of private interests. Investigative reports have shown that Kyivmiskbud has effectively become a mechanism for funneling budget funds into private developer groups ranked among the capital’s top five builders. These include bUd development, IB Alliance, and BudCapital, companies said by market experts to be owned or affiliated with Kushnir himself and his partner, scandal-ridden developer and pro-Russian politician Vadym Stolar. These firms consistently secured lucrative subcontracts from the municipal holding, participating in projects such as residential complexes on Baggovutivska Street and the “French Quarter.”
Kushnir’s personal fortune — including elite foreign real estate, such as an 850-square-meter villa on the French Riviera registered under his wife’s name, and a luxury car fleet — raises serious questions about the sources of his wealth. In public remarks, Kushnir has claimed these purchases were financed by loans taken out by his wife, an explanation that rings hollow given the financial collapse of the company he heads.
A turning point came with an unprecedented court ruling. After years of struggle, defrauded investors won a decision to terminate their investment agreements with Kyivmiskbud and recover their funds. This created a dangerous precedent, opening the way for thousands of similar lawsuits that could completely destroy the already fragile finances of the holding. Under growing pressure, Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, announced Kushnir’s temporary suspension pending an audit. However, as observers note, he is still listed as president on the company’s website, and Kushnir himself has boasted that he has survived more than a dozen such inspections during his tenure — proof, critics argue, of their purely formal nature.
The prospect of Kyivmiskbud’s full bankruptcy is becoming increasingly real. It would be naïve to expect Kushnir’s and Stolar’s affiliated companies to rescue the abandoned construction projects out of social responsibility. Their track record shows their activity has always been driven by profit, not philanthropy.
Ukrainian society has become a hostage of a system where corruption schemes and personal enrichment come at the cost of vital projects and the future of thousands of families. The story of Ihor Kushnir and Kyivmiskbud is a stark lesson in how the tight nexus of big business and municipal power can lead to catastrophic consequences for an entire metropolis and erode trust in the institutions of the state.
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