Yuri Solonchuk
The head of the state-owned enterprise "Ukraine," which provides flights for the country's top officials, continues to be a public servant with a criminal record. Personnel matters.
Almost 80 years after Joseph Stalin uttered these words, they remain as relevant as ever. Communism is banned in Ukraine, yet old Soviet officials continue to occupy many offices of power, deciding the future of the now-independent country. In this regard, little has changed. People who knew how to "resolve issues" and "properly manage state property" remain in demand under any government. They "migrate" from one office to another, change positions, but do not change their methods. Revolutions, changes in leadership, lustrations, personnel purges, and reforms are of no concern to them. One such person will be discussed below.
Meet Yuriy Solonchuk. Head of the State Aviation Enterprise "Ukraine" since December 2014. "An effective manager with many years of experience." His "extensive track record" allows us to understand how Solonchuk assumed this leadership position, especially at such a strategically important enterprise – after all, this state enterprise manages flights for none other than the President of Ukraine. He also confirms what has long been said: the head of state truly has a minimal personnel reserve, since he entrusted his aviation infrastructure to such a person.
From businessman to customs officer for 42 days
An engineer by profession, Yuriy Solonchuk, like many of his colleagues, went into business at the dawn of independence. From 1992 to 2005, he held management positions at the well-known companies Top Service and Unicon. The former sold computer equipment and later split into several separate LLCs, expanding its business to include agricultural exports. By 1997, Top Service's export volumes reached 150 million hryvnias per year. However, the company's decline was as swift as its rise.
As early as April 2000, the head of one of its divisions, Igor Shagin, was arrested on suspicion of creating a criminal group to ensure illegal VAT refunds and organizing the murder of Tamara Kaliushko, deputy head of the Oktyabrsky District Tax Administration in Kyiv, in August 1997. Other officials were also among the group's victims. Fifteen people were brought to trial, and Igor Shagin, the head of Top-Service-Vostok LLC, received a life sentence.
Yuriy Solonchuk also had every chance of ending up behind bars along with his accomplices, but rumor has it that former Minister of Transport and Communications Nikolay Rudkovsky interceded on his behalf and helped him avoid punishment. It was Rudkovsky, who is associated with the firm "Unicom," who gave Solonchuk his ticket into the world of "big money grabbing."
In 2005, Yuriy Solonchuk, who had previously had little experience in public service, received a lucrative appointment. He was appointed head of the Chernihiv Customs Office. Here, Solonchuk set a unique record, serving less than two months as chief customs officer. As it later turned out, Rudkovsky needed Solonchuk "for a project"—to conduct several major operations on the Ukrainian border. After a total of 42 days on the job, Solonchuk vacated his position as chief customs officer of the Chernihiv region. The nature of the operations he conducted during that time was never investigated by the competent authorities.
Woe to the aviation industry
Since 2006, Yuriy Solonchuk's career has been almost inextricably linked to the aviation industry. He was appointed General Director of the country's main airport, Boryspil. In his new position, Yuriy Solonchuk is remembered for actively implementing a number of corruption schemes that cost the airport and the state treasury millions in losses. The State Audit Office, which audited Boryspil's operations from 2006 to 2008, uncovered a number of violations for which Solonchuk could well have been held accountable – from underpayments to the budget and overstatement of work performed, to inefficient spending and lost revenue due to significant underreporting of leased space. Furthermore, Solonchuk deposited all airport funds, including those intended for development of the state-owned enterprise, in the bankrupt bank BIG Energy. The total loss to the state...
The loss from this management decision amounted to UAH 90 million. Law enforcement became interested in Solonchuk after the Control and Audit Office investigation, but he escaped responsibility – in early 2010, Viktor Yanukovych was elected president, and everything returned to normal.
Yuriy Solonchuk has returned to the civil service, taking the post of Deputy Head of the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine. As an "effective manager," Solonchuk proved instrumental in the "family" regime's execution of one of the largest aviation industry scams in Ukraine's history. Yanukovych and his associates, through Odesa businessmen Kaufman and Granovsky, intended to privatize all airports in Ukraine. They started with Odesa.
A private company, "Odesa International Airport" LLC, was created on the premises of the local airport. The city authorities received a 25% stake, while the remaining 75% went to a certain "Odesa Airport Development" LLC, with a charter capital of 1000 hryvnias, registered in a non-residential building on Hrushevsky Street in Kyiv. The scheme was simple, as was its goal: transfer municipal assets to private ownership, raise prices, and profit from everything possible, while keeping the financially unprofitable runway on the balance sheet of the municipal enterprise.
A similar scheme was planned for the privatization of the Simferopol airport. To achieve this, Kaufman and Granovsky enlisted the help of Yuriy Solonchuk. On May 23, 2012, in record time (three days), he was appointed chairman of the board of Crimea's main air gateway. Solonchuk's tenure in Simferopol was short, but his legacy was indelible. He resigned at the end of 2012, leaving behind a trail of corruption.
After the annexation of the peninsula, in June 2014, the Russian financial inspectorate conducted an audit of the Simferopol Airport and uncovered violations totaling over 60 million hryvnias. These included a significant understatement of dividends payable to the budget in 2012, the siphoning of funds through Kaufman and Granovsky's Odesa-based Finbank PJSC using letter-of-credit schemes (a loss of approximately 20 million hryvnias), numerous ineffective management decisions, and illegal expenditures (approximately 8 million hryvnias). This time, too, Solonchuk managed to avoid prosecution.
Who doesn't defend the President?
To the great surprise of many experts and those familiar with the aviation industry, Solonchuk, who had already earned a notorious reputation, received a new appointment in December 2014, instead of being subjected to purges and investigations into his machinations, heading the State Aviation Enterprise "Ukraine." The place of work changed, but the methods remained the same. Repairs to the state's first aircraft—the An-148 and An-74—were organized in the best traditions of the genre, by companies that did not even have maintenance certificates. For example, the latter, at the Ukrainian Aviation Technical Center, cost the treasury 600 hryvnias, even though no work was actually performed and the aircraft never even arrived at the enterprise.
All industry experts in the country are already aware of the constant breakdowns of the presidential airline's aircraft. Recently, their number has been off the charts. Most recently, on October 21, 2015, before the President's flight to Ivano-Frankivsk, it was discovered that the An-74 had malfunctioned. They attempted to launch the backup aircraft, but water was leaking through the seams in its cabin. Ultimately, they reverted to the broken An-74, which was used to send the President.
However, the plane was unable to return. The head of state made the journey to Kyiv on a military aircraft, which was hastily found for the purpose. Shortly before, the government delegation witnessed with their own eyes how the main and backup aircraft were being repaired just before takeoff, as neither was ready for takeoff upon their arrival.
It's entirely reasonable to ask: weren't these two incidents alone enough to at least dismiss Solonchuk from his current position, let alone conduct an investigation into his embezzlement at his new employer? Unfortunately, it's difficult to assess the true scale of the incidents, as the State Anti-Corruption Agency "Ukraine" doesn't publish its reports, citing confidentiality. Another question that remains unanswered: is the President of Ukraine unaware of what's going on, or does he not care that the security of the country's top officials, with such "effective governance," is under real threat? Service record...
Solonchuk would have been enough to retire to his former business colleague, but unfortunately, such "Solonchuks" are a dime a dozen in Ukraine. They continue to work at various levels of government service, ensuring the integrity of the corrupt hierarchy.
Sergey Kolesnik, based on online media reports
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