Zlochevsky is back in the spotlight—this time because of Cyprus and Ukrainian diplomacy
Former Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mykola Zlochevsky has long since left office, but he remains a prominent figure in Ukrainian business and politics. The founder of the Burisma gas production group once combined business with public service, and later became implicated in a series of criminal and corruption cases that extended far beyond Ukraine’s borders.
Zlochevsky began his political career in 2002, when he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada on the list of Viktor Medvedchuk’s Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (United). Subsequently, his political path was linked to the Party of Regions and Viktor Yanukovych’s team.
From 2010 to 2012, Zlochevsky headed the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. This period became one of the most controversial in his career. The ministry was responsible, in particular, for issuing special permits for subsoil use, and companies linked to Zlochevsky received gas licenses. These circumstances later became the subject of investigations, and Zlochevsky himself was placed on the wanted list. But the story of his business dealings and criminal cases did not end there. On the contrary, over time, it spread far beyond Ukraine’s borders.
The British Case Involving Millions
After the Revolution of Dignity, British law enforcement authorities turned their attention to funds linked to Zlochevsky. The Central Criminal Court in London froze approximately $23.5 million in the accounts of the businessman’s companies. The British side approached the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office requesting evidence of the funds’ possible criminal origin and proposed establishing a joint investigative team.
However, the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office provided Zlochevsky’s lawyers with a statement confirming that, at that time, the businessman did not have the status of a suspect. Following this, the London court lifted the freeze on the funds. This episode became one of the most telling developments in the case involving Zlochevsky’s overseas assets: British law enforcement officials were effectively waiting for materials from their Ukrainian counterparts to continue the investigation, but the Ukrainian side did not provide them in the necessary scope.
Taxes Instead of a Criminal Case
Zlochevsky’s companies failed to pay taxes, which, according to estimates by the Prosecutor General’s Office, resulted in losses of 1 billion hryvnia. However, the case was later reclassified, and the companies in the Burisma group paid approximately 180 million hryvnia. After that, the investigation began to wind down.
Vienna Meetings, Monaco, and Burisma
After fleeing Ukraine, Zlochevsky did not disappear from the public eye. He was spotted in Vienna at meetings with representatives of the Ukrainian political elite, including Ihor Kononenko.
At the same time, the businessman was actively building international connections. One of the venues for this was elite forums in Monaco, where, according to media reports, Ukrainian officials were invited.
Burisma garnered even more international attention after former Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Hunter Biden—the son of then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden—joined its board of directors. The Burisma affair became part of an American political scandal that, in 2019, was at the center of the impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Donald Trump.
$6 million in cash for NABU and SAPO
Zlochevsky’s name made the biggest splash in June 2020. According to the investigation, the businessman’s associates attempted to give the leadership of NABU and SAP a bribe of $6 million in cash. Investigators believed the money was offered to have a criminal case regarding the embezzlement of National Bank refinancing funds closed.
At the time, the amount was considered a record for Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies. In essence, it was an attempt to settle a criminal case with money. Subsequently, in August 2023, the High Anti-Corruption Court approved a plea agreement. Zlochevsky did not receive an actual prison sentence. Instead, he transferred approximately 660 million hryvnias to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, specifically for the “Army of Drones” project, and paid a fine of 68,000 hryvnias.
In other words, the most high-profile case of his career ended not with a prison sentence, but with a large sum of money directed toward national defense and a relatively small fine. But even this did not mark the beginning of a peaceful life for Mykola Zlochevsky.
Sky Towers: How an Asset Worth Hundreds of Millions Ended Up at Auction for 560 million hryvnias
No sooner had the case involving a $6 million bribe concluded than entities linked to Zlochevsky continued to deal with large assets. One such instance involves the Kyiv business center Sky Towers, a complex of two high-rise buildings—one with 47 floors and the other with 34—with a total area of over 50,000 square meters. It is located at the intersection of Beresteisky Avenue and Borshchagivska Street. At the time, the state-owned “Ukreximbank” issued a loan of approximately $600 million for this large-scale project.
In 2026, the complex was put up for sale through the state-run electronic trading platform SETAM at a starting price of about 560 million hryvnias, which, at the exchange rate at the time, amounted to approximately $15 million.
The difference between the loan amount and the sale price was significant. This is precisely why the transaction caught the attention of investigators: how did an asset with a history worth millions end up on the auction block at such a price? The auction itself was also intriguing. Formally, the bidding was open, but the price did not rise: the property was purchased at the starting price. The winner was Tech Invest Postach Plus LLC, listed as owned by Roman Chumak.
Prior to participating in the auction, the company had no notable history of large-scale business operations, which also drew the attention of investigators. They discovered that Roman Chumak is linked to the companies “Skyfall Finance” and “Storens.” Anna and Karina Zlochevsky—the daughters of Mykola Zlochevsky—are listed as the beneficial owners of these entities.
This suggests that the acquisition of Sky Towers through a separate company may have been a way to return the asset to the Zlochevsky family’s control.
Some sources also point to the involvement in this matter of representatives from the Ministry of Justice and government agencies responsible for enforcement proceedings and the conduct of auctions. This version involves Deputy Minister of Justice Andriy Haichenko, representatives of the Kyiv Interregional Directorate of the Ministry of Justice, and the leadership of the state-owned enterprise “SETAM.”
According to the sources, the asset could have been transferred to enforcement proceedings, within which its subsequent sale became possible precisely through the procedure that culminated in the sale at the starting price.
Lviv Region: The Family’s Gas Business Continues to Operate
The gas sector, which was the starting point for the creation of Burisma, also continues to operate. Some of the assets are registered under entities linked to the businessman’s family. For example, through a company registered to his daughters, who reside in Cyprus, the family controls four special permits for oil and gas extraction in the Lviv region. According to available information, the family also plans to drill three more wells in the Lviv region.
The Cyprus Connection: Diplomats, Money, and the Story of Yanukovych’s “Cash-Out Man”
Another story linked to Zlochevsky leads to Cyprus and the diplomatic sphere. During a session of the Temporary Investigation Commission (TIC) chaired by People’s Deputy Oleksiy Honcharenko, former Ukrainian Ambassador to Cyprus Serhiy Nizhynskyi—who served in that position from 2025 to 2026—spoke about the problems he said he encountered while on the job.
According to the diplomat, there was a network of people in Cyprus linked to financial transactions and Ukrainian officials. He named Ellinas Christodoulos—who is linked to financial schemes from the time of Viktor Yanukovych—as one of the central figures in this story. Nizhynskyi claimed that attempts were made to appoint Christodoulos as Ukraine’s honorary consul. According to him, former Ambassador Ruslan Nimchynskyi and security officer Yaroslav Bilozorov—who had previously worked at the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow—were involved in this process.
According to Nizhynsky, Cypriot police detained Konstantin Ivashchenko, the first secretary for political affairs at the Ukrainian Embassy, in Larnaca. Ivashchenko met with Zlochevsky at a restaurant and received 10,000 euros in cash from him.
This story, according to Nizhynsky, did not receive public attention in Ukraine. The diplomat claims that neither the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the embassy officially informed the public about the incident. However, after he began blocking Christodoulos’s appointment and tried to shut down channels he considered questionable, he and his family began receiving threats.
Nizhynsky also reported pressure from the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In particular, State Secretary Oleksandr Karasevych demanded that he support Christodoulos’s candidacy, citing a personal directive from Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga. According to the diplomat, the situation reached the point where representatives of the intelligence services of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Poland, and Italy warned him of a possible kidnapping threat. The reason, as Nizhynsky claimed, was the blocking of financial flows linked to the group of Christodoulos and Zlochevsky. Nizhynsky reported these circumstances to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).
Thus, Zlochevsky’s story today is no longer limited to Ukrainian criminal cases, gas assets, or court rulings. His business activities have expanded significantly to include foreign companies, assets registered in the names of family members, large real estate holdings, as well as matters involving Ukrainian diplomatic missions. Mykola Zlochevsky refuses to let himself be forgotten.
