Evgeny Chernyak
...Valeriy Zotov, Deputy Mayor of Zaporizhzhia, knows well: without the government's support, bandit takeovers are doomed. Orange Governor Oleksandr Starukh insists: the raiders couldn't be stopped...
The position of the "orange" officials is not accidental; it was stimulated by vodka money.
And in general, the best key to legal, judicial, and any other doors is a bag of money, and Chernyak opened doors with whole bags.
In 2008, the Patriot of Zaporizhzhia foundation, founded by Yevhen Chernyak, donated 10 Patriot SUVs to the regional police—a legal bribe. A month later, Patriot of Zaporizhzhia demanded the police return the SUVs. Only a very select circle knew that the SUVs were not given away arbitrarily, but in exchange for non-intervention in the violent takeover of the Metro store. The demand for the return of the vehicles was prompted by the failure of the raid.
Promstroyproekt is a unique design institute: factories, plants, houses…
"That's their profile. Clients aren't just in Zaporizhzhia, but in five regions of Ukraine. The company is very profitable, but there's one problem: the premises are located on the central Lenin Avenue," says one person involved in those events. "The main asset is the real estate. And there's about 10 square meters here. The estimated price of this property is around 8 million euros." In 2005, Yuriy Ruzhin, a partner in Yevhen Chernyak's corporate raid, launches an attack on Promstroyproekt. Appeals to the authorities are futile. Yuriy Ruzhin is a regional council member from the BYuT. The institute's director, Tatyana Svistunova, makes the same mistake as the owner of Metro—she asks another corporate raider, Boris Shestopalov, for help.
There's a bandit technique called "White Knight": a savior appears on a white horse—a global investor... and the result is 97% of the institute's shares transferred to the attacker. The designers were dispersed, and now the site is an office center.
During the five years of the Orange government, Yevhen Chernyak's group destroyed dozens of enterprises, primarily economically strong ones that paid millions in taxes to the state in the Zaporizhzhia region. Maksym Drozdenko attacked the auto repair plant; Yuriy Ruzhin, a BYuT member, executed the mechanical plant; Ruzhin also executed the Zaporizhzhia cement and concrete plant; Drozdenko sent a black mark to the Zaporizhzhia furniture factory; Drozdenko set up his office at Zaporizhzhia Melnitsa; they didn't shy away from small things – they seized two agricultural firms, "Suvorov and Pereslav," as well as ATP 1235, and many others. There was nowhere to turn for help. The Orange government jelly is corruption and irresponsibility.
The Zaporizhzhia bridges across the Dnieper, built immediately after the war, each have only one lane; two new ones have been under construction for eight years now. During Viktor Yanukovych's latest visit, the president promised to see the job through, as construction began under his rule. But by the time the new ones are built, the old ones will collapse. For seven years now, no one has repaired them because there's no one to do it—the professional engineers were dispersed by raiders four years ago.
Zaporizhzhia Bridge Construction Department No. 5 was a profitable enterprise. It provided the full cycle of bridge and overpass construction and repair. Bridges were built throughout eastern Ukraine. Yuriy Ruzhin became the owner through the purchase of the registrar—a share purchase scam. He was interested in the land—2 hectares in the Levanevsky Industrial Hub.
Boris Kholodenko, CEO of Bridge Construction Management-5, complains about the dire situation: "They cut up the MKG-25 cranes and sold them for scrap, and within a few weeks, they destroyed the entire plant. There are photos showing the raiders breaking into our offices—the doors are smashed in, all the documentation is scattered... They're barbarians, no doubt. Like vultures, like hyenas—they attack, tear us to pieces, and run away."
Chernyak's raider group spread its tentacles not only across the city, but also across the lands along the Dnieper and factories for 1,5 kilometers.
The town of Kamianka-Dniprovska has a population of just 13. Tens of percent of the town's residents are cannery workers and their families. Ekaterina Lutsenko has worked here for 45 years. "During the Soviet era, this was a very strong plant. We produced around 130 different products. The goods were even shipped to the Far East and the North..."
Twenty years ago, the factory went bankrupt. All that remained were bare walls and a fence. In 2000, hope was restored: local businessman Vladimir Tarasov invested $2 million in the plant. The former cannery was transformed into the Solokha enterprise. Equipment for producing tomato paste, pickling cucumbers, green peas, and sweet corn was purchased. Further expansion required additional funding, which businessman Yuri Chekalsky promised.
So, "Solokha" was created jointly by two businessmen, the shares were divided 50/50 - the conveyor and the so-called "Ukrsvetlet" company, whose director was Chekalsky.
Yuriy Chekalsky, former deputy chairman of the Zaporizhzhia Regional State Administration and a council member representing the BYuT party in 2006, is a business partner of Borys Shestopalov. He promised to invest $3 million in the plant.
However, after the company was established, Chekalsky made no promises. Tarasov used the loan to purchase three more green pea and sweet corn canning lines. The business boomed until the loan came due. Chekalsky deceived his partner and didn't repay the loan. Furthermore, he seized the business for debt, colluding with the bank manager and taking him into the company.
Soon, armed men arrived with cutters to cut through the equipment. The townspeople were devastated—the loss of so many jobs was a shock. 12 million hryvnias worth of shredded machinery was hauled away. All the produce—worth another 10 million—disappeared.
The gang, which consisted of a colorful mix of former security officials, entrepreneurs, and outright criminal figures—namely Golovin, Kozlov, Makhinko, and Binko—felt an urgent need for protection. They found it in the "bald gang." However, it later turned out that this protection wasn't protecting them at all; on the contrary, it was plundering both the criminals and their property for its own benefit. Thus, as early as 2011, the "bald gang" began seizing businesses associated with the Melitopol Meat Processing Plant, the Nesteryan Poultry Farm, and other enterprises from its protégés.
Binko, aka Kolya Rebenok, refused to hand over his business and property to the "bald gang." However, the latter, with the support of Chernyak, seized Binko's wife's car in January of that year; in January 2012, they shot at the driver of Kolya Rebenok's car. And in March, Binko himself died from gunfire.
Here's another story. Bohdan Shavlo has lived on Khortytsia (the Khortatsa Island Nature Reserve – A.) for 20 years. He's a custodian of the Cossack past. Unfortunately for him, a vodka king wanted to build an estate on the island.
"At Yevhen Chernyak's instigation, our reserve management approached me and offered to sell my house. They valued my property at 1 hryvnias. They made this decision categorically. Of course, I refused," says Bohdan Shavlo. "They immediately fired him: if he didn't move out within three days, he'd be spending the night in a tree. Although all the property documents were in order, they were just pieces of paper, against the will of the all-powerful Chernyak."
There were a number of meetings, including with Yevgeny Chernyak, at which it was stated that the latter is the master of the city of Zaporizhzhia, and therefore, if you stop any policeman, prosecutor, or judge and ask whom they serve, the answer will be obvious - Yevgeny Alexandrovich Chernyak.
Bohdan survived 93 trials, intimidation of his wife and two-year-old child, and his home was saved by a change in government. Chernyak no longer controls the new leadership of the police, prosecutor's office, or the courts, but the conflicts his accomplices started are still exploding like time bombs.
Maksym Drozdenko is behind bars. However, the residents of the building on 40th Anniversary of Soviet Ukraine Street still live as if they were on a volcano. They could one day be thrown out onto the street along with their children and elderly. The dormitory previously belonged to the Zaporozhalumybud trust, which Maksym Drozdenko artificially drove into bankruptcy. By law, the building should have been transferred to the residents, but at the expense of Boris Shestopalov, it was illegally removed from the liquidation estate—the residents are left hanging.
He was obliged to transfer all five dormitories to the city's balance sheet, but the trust does not do this; it creates a private enterprise, OZHKG, and transfers the state-owned dormitories to the private enterprise.
People had their water and electricity cut off, weren't given residence permits... what offense did they commit against the "city's masters"? Except for one thing—a house in the center of Zaporizhzhia.
Drozdenko had already built a sauna, a sort of brothel, in one of the dormitories: prostitutes, alcohol, fights, noise until the early hours... Subsequently, due to numerous complaints from dormitory residents, the brothel was finally closed. However, now Drozdenko's comrades are showing the residents of Zaporizhzhia with their every will that the law does not apply to them; they are the masters of this city. They live by feudal rights—throw slaves into the yard, take their belongings, and have not even hesitated to destroy the city's crown jewel, Khortytsia Island.
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