Volodymyr Hulievych, the ex-head of the Department of State Procurement at the Ministry of Defence, accused of squandering millions while procuring fuel for the AFU, doesn’t suffer from unemployment after his dismissal. On the contrary, in a few years, he received almost UAH 9 mln from defence suppliers as a sole entrepreneur. It seems like the criminal investigation and the status of the accused person haven’t impacted his business prospects in any way.
At present, Volodymyr Hulievych is one of six persons, accused in the case of embezzlement of UAH 58 mln during fuel procurement for the army. This case is related to the events that took place ten years ago. That’s when the Ministry of Defence ordered fuel from Trade Commodity LLC worth UAH 1.2 bln. Yet, later the price of oil products was increased by additional agreements which, in the investigators’ opinion, was unreasonable.
Volodymyr Hulievych. A photo by UNIAN
This case was transferred to the court in 2019, but Hulievych was dismissed from the Ministry of Defence only in April 2020. He tried to get reinstated to his position as chief army procurer via court officially – the Director of the Department of State Procurement and Supply of Material Resources of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, yet it was all in vain. The High Anticorruption Court is still reviewing the case of money embezzlement using fuel for the army. Yet, it isn’t a hindrance to Volodymyr Hulievych’s way to receiving finances from the contractors of the Ministry of Defence.
At the end of 2022, he was registered as a sole entrepreneur with the main type of activity of “consulting on issues of commercial activity and management”. According to the information from our sources, in three years, Volodymyr Hulievych received at least UAH 8.97 mln from different companies that were suppliers for the military.
The largest amount, a total of UAH 5.58 mln, was transferred to him by Coltrain LLC, Businesscom LTD, Smartcode Pro LLC the previous name of Agrotrading group and Yunistkom LLC. This is a group of interrelated companies. NGL.media found out that during the full-scale war, it bought goods for the Ukrainian army from Dzmitry Shershan, a Belarusian.
“If we are talking about European legislation, when an official is dismissed from his position, there is at least a one-year-long restriction on his working in the private sphere related to his previous position. It is regarded as a potential conflict of interests, which is why such a restriction is set,” Serhii Mytkalyk, an anticorruption expert and the chairman of the board of the NGO “Anti-Corruption Headquarters”, explains.
There are no such restrictions in the Ukrainian legislation. “Of course, there is an element of moral ethics, and everybody is clear on this: if a new job is very closely related to the previous one, he is most likely to be using his contacts or some connections. And, having these contacts, he might obtain updated information, thus using his previous position,” Mytkalyk says.
The editorial office asked these companies to explain for which services they had paid Volodymyr Hulievych. Yet, we received the response only from Yulia Kykot, the owner and director of Coltrain she also owned Yunistkom in 2020-2023. She told us that Hulievych indeed received payments for his consulting services, but their essence is a commercial secret. “The mentioned relations were entirely of a civil law nature,” she wrote, highlighting that the consultant hadn’t worked at the Ministry at the time.
Volodymyr Hulievych also had no desire to explain to the editorial office why and when he started cooperating with the contractors of the Ministry of Defence, ignoring our numerous requests for comments. Anyway, last year, Hulievych and Kykot became business partners.
Hulievych’s short-term project
Last February, Yulia Kykot, the owner of Coltrain, and Oleksandr Kucher, the owner of Prolog Service, founded a clothing manufacture Khiton Luks in Kyiv in cooperation with Volodymyr Hulievych, the ex-head of the Department of State Procurement of the Ministry of Defence. It should be noted that at the end of last year, Coltrain, Prolog Service, and Businesscom LTD were fined by the AMCU for UAH 27 mln for non-competitive coordinated actions during the tenders at the Ministry of Defence.
At first, the newly created Khiton Luks acted as a producer in the contracts of Coltrain. For instance, in June 2025, Coltrain received contracts for the supplies of war belts and polo shirts for a total amount of UAH 18.5 mln, which were manufactured by Khiton Luks the letters on interests representation 1, 2 , and in the following month, according to the YouControl data, Volodymyr Hulievych withdrew from the ranks of the founders.
Two days before the AMCU’s decision about the conspiracy, Khiton Luks started taking part in procurements on its own, and even received three orders: to supply combat pouches to the AFU and border guards and scarves for the National Guard for a total of over UAH 25 mln.
Now, Khiton Luks belongs only to Volodymyr Kucher and hasn’t received any new orders via Prozorro yet.
Family business
In 2015, when Volodymyr Hulievych was already working at the Ministry of Defence, his daughter from the previous marriage, Halyna, who was 21 years old at the time, got registered as a sole entrepreneur in the wholesale of textile goods. Judging by Clarity Project data, she didn’t get many orders, just for mere UAH 86.9 thousand. She sold the uniform, headwear, and shoulder straps to state enterprises.
Volodymyr Hulievych celebrates his birthday with his wife Inna, daughters Halyna (second on the left) and Yevhenia. April 2, 2021 (a Facebook photo)
But, starting with the following year, according to the data of our source, Halyna Hulevych this exact spelling with the letter “e” was transferred the money from Italtex merino company. In 2016-2017, the company paid her at least UAH 6.3 mln which is about USD 240 thousand at the exchange rate at the time. And she also took part in the same sales with this company.
Italtex merino, a Chernihiv-based clothing factory, was a defence supplier in 2015-2019 in 2019, as disclosed by Novynarnia, the Ministry of Defence added Italtex merino to the “black list” due to improper implementation of the contracts. Now, these contracts are hidden, so we don’t know their details. Halyna Hulevych didn’t respond to our request for comments on this article regarding the obtained finances.
A timely divorce
It has been the seventh year that the High Anticorruption Court reviews the case about the embezzlement of UAH 58 mln during the procurement of fuel for the AFU. During this period, even one of the accused, the main specialist of Hulievych’s Department, Borys Malysh, died.
In case of the sentence according to the incriminated article Part 5 of Art. 191 of the CCU – misappropriation, embezzlement, or acquisition of property through abuse of the official positionHulievych may face up to 12 years of imprisonment, and his property may be confiscated.
Yet, according to YouControl data, no real estate is registered in his name. However, his former wife owns a house and some land in the prestigious suburbs of Kyiv. The couple got officially divorced two months before the purchase of this house, on February 2, 2022, which could have been a forced action to avoid confiscation.
Despite the official divorce, the couple seems to continue living together. At least, Inna, his former wife, has regular posts of sweet photos with Volodymyr and their son on social networks. For instance, last year, she was greeted on the 12th anniversary of their marriage and posted a family photo session on this occasion, and in December, she posted the photos of them having a walk.
From the photo session of Inna and Volodymyr Hulievych on the occasion of their wedding anniversary. November 2025 (a screen from Instagram)
A house, bought by Inna Hulievych in Sofiivska Borshchahivka, has an area of almost 229 sq.m. This two-storeyed mansion with a terrace, household buildings, and a garage cost her only UAH 5 mln. A much smaller house on the same street is twice more expensive now.
Anyway, according to our estimates, even with Volodymyr Hulievych’s help, she wouldn’t have had enough money to buy it. We summed up the data from our source and the last income statement submitted by Hulievych, and came up with about UAH 4 mln of their joint income and savings in 2020-2021.
Inna Hulievych bought this mansion in Sofiivska Borshchahivka for mere UAH 5 mln (a photo by NGL.media)
It seems that at the end of 2020, Inna Hulievych ended her maternity leave, and prior to that, she was receiving child care benefits. According to the data from our source, she was receiving the payments which may be her salary as a servicewoman from one military regiment, which amounted to about UAH 230 thousand in 2020-2021. Inna Hulievych didn’t want to explain where she had got the money to buy the house. Her ex-husband didn’t want to talk on this topic either.
Author Yelyzaveta Chyp, editor Oleksandra Hubytska, translation Nelya Plakhota, cover Viktoria Demchuk
