Former Deputy Minister of Development Volodin Received a Suspended Sentence in the Chernyshov Case Involving a Corruption Scheme
The High Anti-Corruption Court approved a plea agreement between the prosecutor’s office and Vasyl Volodin, the former State Secretary of the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development, who served during Oleksiy Chernyshov’s tenure as minister.
The High Anti-Corruption Court sentenced Vasyl Volodin to 8 years in prison with a 2.5-year probationary period.
The court also ruled to:
- to confiscate a 63-square-meter apartment that Volodin received as an unlawful benefit;
- to pay nearly 500,000 UAH in damages;
- to transfer 2.5 million hryvnias to the “Come Back Alive” fund.
In determining the sentence, the court took into account mitigating circumstances.
“Sincere remorse, active cooperation with the pretrial investigation, and partial compensation for the damages caused by the criminal offense,” the verdict states.
According to the investigation, in 2022, Volodin, on behalf of the Ministry of Regional Development, granted the state-owned enterprise “Ukrkomunosluzhuvannya” permission to enter into a land development agreement with the company “Citygas Service.”
In return, as established by anti-corruption authorities, he received over 2.5 million hryvnias in illicit benefits in the form of a 63-square-meter apartment.
The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) previously reported that they had uncovered a corruption scheme in the construction sector involving government officials, which could have caused the state losses of over 1 billion UAH.
According to the case file, the developer and his representative devised a scheme to illegally obtain a land plot in Kyiv measuring over 11 hectares for the construction of a residential complex.
Officials from the Ministry of Regional Development and the director of a state-owned enterprise were involved in carrying out the scheme.
During the period when Oleksiy Chernyshov headed the ministry, the officials created the conditions for transferring the land plot to the management of “Ukrkomunosluzhuvannya.”
According to the investigation, Volodin authorized a significant financial commitment, after which the director of the state-owned enterprise entered into investment agreements with a specific construction company.
The developer was to transfer to the state a portion of the apartments in the future residential complex—proportional to the value of the land plot.
At the same time, the land and the buildings on it were appraised at nearly one-fifth of their actual value. The difference between the appraisal and the market value, according to the investigation, exceeded 1 billion hryvnias.
To carry out the scheme, the developer and his representative, according to investigators, provided ministry officials and individuals designated by them with apartments at significant discounts in already completed residential complexes in Kyiv.
The price per square meter for them ranged from 1,000 to 8,000 UAH, while the minimum market price was approximately 30,000 UAH per square meter.
The total amount of the unlawful benefit that anti-corruption authorities linked to the scheme was estimated at 16.8 million hryvnias.
Thus, Volodin pleaded guilty and received a suspended sentence, while the court confiscated the apartment, which the investigation deemed to be an illicit benefit.
The corresponding verdict, dated August 17, is available in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions.
Prior to this, the High Anti-Corruption Court partially granted a motion by the prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office to extend the procedural obligations of former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov.
Chernyshov commented for the first time on the charges against him regarding the laundering of 460 million hryvnias.
Read also: “The Dynasty” on Antibiotics: How Chervonenko’s Pharmaceutical Business May Have Financed the Construction of Residences for Chernyshov and Yermak.
The High Anti-Corruption Court extended the procedural obligations for former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov—who is implicated in anti-corruption investigations by NABU and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office—until June 8, 2026. These include a series of restrictions that remain in effect during the pre-trial investigation.
