The government will spend billions on unified veterans’ spaces. One might wonder, what do Yuriy Holyk and Valentyn Reznichenko have to do with it? This is reported by NGL.media.

«Some people from the ministry called and offered», – this is how the head of the charity fund «Songs Born in ATO» explains how an organization that deals with  festivals suddenly developed a standard design for a veterans’ space building. This project became the basis for a multi-billion government program that provides for the construction of more than 160 such spaces across the country.

This can probably be explained by the extensive connections of the charity fund «Songs Born in ATO», which lead to the informal curator of the «Great Construction» Yuriy Holyk and people from the entourage of the former head of Dnipropetrovsk RSA Valentyn Reznichenko.

Symbiosis of community and state

The first veterans’ spaces appeared in Ukraine long before any state programs. As early as 2014, local communities opened them at their own expense in suitable premises.

Only in August 2024 did the state decide to take the issue into its own hands: the president signed a decree on support for veterans, which specifically mentioned the need to regulate the issue of veterans’ spaces. The following year, the Ministry of Veterans launched a program to build new spaces using a single design.

This refers to single-story buildings with a total area of about 1500 m², consisting of two blocks – a gym and a separate premises with rooms for consultations, psychological support, conference rooms, and a small cafe. 

Visualization of a standard veterans’ space; in total, within the state program, they plan to build more than 160 such facilities (photo of Ivano-Frankivsk RMA)

The state covers up to 60% of the construction cost, with the local community covering the rest. The funds will only go toward new construction and only according to the ministry’s standard design, meaning they cannot be used for repairs or outfitting existing veterans’ spaces.

Even before the official launch of the government program, the first deputy minister for veterans’ affairs Viktor Baydachnyi visited regions and negotiated with local communities. And already in July 2025, the government allocated 446 million UAH, and construction of veterans’ spaces started in the first seven communities – in Kryvyi Rih, Lutsk, Zhytomyr, Bucha, Uzhhorod, Kremenchuk, and Ivano-Frankivsk.

They planned to put them into operation in record short terms – by December 1 of last year. Obviously, none of the seven facilities met this deadline. In fact, they still haven’t opened.

Meanwhile, in February 2026, the government approved the conditions for participation in the next stage of the veterans’ spaces construction program – this time 1.1 billion UAH for 15 communities.

Program implementation

The documents that communities submitted for participation in the government program indicate that cities were preparing long before its official announcement. For example, the land plot for construction in Lutsk was allocated on May 28, 2025 – three weeks before the government adopted the relevant resolution.

The expertise of adapted designs was carried out by two organizations, LLC «UC Expertise» and LLC «Nova-Expert», spending less than a month on each facility. 

They were in a hurry at the tenders as well. In all seven communities, only one contractor applied to participate in the bidding and received the orders, while the tender conditions effectively made participation of others impossible. For example, in Kryvyi Rih, they required confirmation of annual income at the level of the expected contract value (over 130 million UAH) – and a personal inspection of the facility with the customer’s signature. In Uzhhorod, in addition to the inspection, they added unnecessary quality certificates.

At the same time, the companies that ultimately received the contracts were either newly created or had disproportionately little experience. The contractor in Kremenchuk had experience of 2 million UAH but received a contract for 132 million UAH. The documents submitted for the tender indicate that all 42 employees of the company were hired a few months before the tender with salaries of 8-9 thousand UAH against the average salary of a builder at 40 thousand UAH. The consortium building the veterans’ space in Bucha was registered a few months before the tender, with only six people on staff. 

Construction of the seven veterans’ spaces began in the summer-autumn of 2025. It was then discovered that the cost of materials in the estimates was significantly overestimated. In Kremenchuk – about 2 million UAH, in Kryvyi Rih – about 2.6 million UAH, in Uzhhorod – over 7 million. Some items in the estimates are deliberately formulated vaguely, without specific characteristics, which makes comparison with market prices impossible.

The original idea of the program envisaged that from the distribution of funds to the appearance of ready facilities, less than five months would pass. However, some communities went even further. For example, in Lutsk, the calendar plan submitted along with the application envisaged the start of construction work on August 1 and completion by November 30 – that is, only four months for the entire construction. But as a result, the contract with the contractor was signed only on October 15, and it had to complete the work by November 20. However, the Lutsk example pales in comparison to Kremenchuk, where the construction contract was concluded on November 10 with a deadline of November 20 – ten days to erect a complex building with an area of almost 1500 m².

Such haste can be explained by the fact that communities wanted to utilize the budget funds by the end of the year, and then continue construction with additional agreements. The head of the capital construction department of the Lutsk City Council, Vasyl Lishchuk, publicly confirmed that the unrealistic deadlines were due to pressure from Kyiv: «They said the deadlines are very, very tight. But we see the situation differently on the ground. The country’s leadership in general somewhere might see it a bit differently».

The deadlines for all seven facilities were postponed several times. Vasyl Lishchuk, in a conversation with journalists,  explains that the commissioning of the facility in Lutsk is currently delayed due to coordination of finishes, as even the colors must match the single standard. «There are delays from the ministry itself, which coordinates these processes. A few days ago we received the local version, so we are now starting the interior finishing», – he explained.

According to Lishchuk’s assessment, the new veterans’ space in Lutsk will open no earlier than June. However, he still does not know who will maintain it. «We are responsible for the construction. The ministry is now deciding who will operate it further», – he said. 

«Songs Born in ATO»

According to the government program’s plan, a total of 161 veterans’ spaces are to be built across the country – all in a single architectural style. The Ministry of Veterans for Affairs approved this design by order. 

But the ministry did not commission it.

In the construction activity register, the design documentation appeared on April 24 last year – 55 days before the government resolution appeared. The charity fund «Songs Born in ATO» commissioned the development of the documentation from a private entrepreneur from Transcarpathia, Yuriy Erdeli.

This project was then transferred to the ministry, which received all property rights. Participation in the state program is possible only if construction is carried out exactly according to this design, without any alternatives — communities confirmed this in their applications. Permissions to use the project were signed by the first deputy minister Viktor Baydachnyi.

The Dnipro-based charity fund «Songs Born in ATO» previously organized music festivals, and in 2022 it reoriented to helping the military, IDPs, and hospitals. The organization has no relation to design or construction – at least officially.

The founder of the fund, Volodymyr Yurchenko, could not explain why a charity organization is commissioning construction documentation for a state program.

«Some people from the ministry called and offered», – the head of the fund, Yuriy Shulika, also did not add much clarity in a conversation with journalists. He confirmed that it was his organization that commissioned the design, which was transferred to the ministry. But who exactly called, why they approached «Songs Born in ATO», who within the fund conducted these negotiations, how they chose the designer Yuriy Erdeli – to each of these questions, Yuriy Shulika answered the same: doesn’t know, can’t say.

Architect Yuriy Erdeli confirmed that the charity fund approached him, though he couldn’t recall its name. Erdeli says he developed the design for a symbolic fee of one hryvnia, «because it’s for veterans». He had no contact with the ministry; he handed over his work to the fund, and the fund then to the ministry, but without his involvement.

«They asked me, and the design had to be developed in a very short time. We worked day and night», – Erdeli explains. Construction also had to be fast, so he provided for a building made of prefabricated frame structures in the design. He considers half a year a realistic timeframe for constructing such a facility. 

«Some people»

Yuriy Shulika could not explain why the fund he heads ended up at the center of the state construction program. But the organization’s connections provide a clue.

The charity fund «Songs Born in ATO» was founded by Volodymyr Yurchenko – former deputy head of Dnipropetrovsk RSA under Valentyn Reznichenko. Reznichenko headed the region twice – from 2016 to 2019 and from 2020 to 2023. It was during his second term that the «Great Construction» program unfolded – a large-scale presidential project to repair roads, schools, and hospitals. 

The regional administration is also connected to the wife of the current fund director. In 2017, Nataliya Shulika coordinated the eponymous festival «Songs Born in ATO» on behalf of the Dnipropetrovsk RSA – at that time she worked in the Center for Assistance to ATO Participants under Reznichenko’s administration. She also headed the department for ATO participants’ issues at the same administration.

In the foreground – RSA head Valentyn Reznichenko. Far left – Volodymyr Yurchenko and Viktor Baydachnyi. The first is now the founder of the charity fund that commissioned the veterans’ space construction design. The second is the deputy minister for veterans’ affairs. It was Viktor Baydachnyi who traveled to negotiate with communities even before the official program launch. It was he whom the minister tasked with overseeing approval of the design and distribution of subventions from the state budget among the first communities. 

Viktor Baydachnyi is a native of Dnipro. Before his appointment in 2022 as deputy minister for veterans’ affairs, he worked in the department of veterans’ policy at Dnipropetrovsk RSA during Valentyn Reznichenko’s tenure and under ’s leadership. There is a document on business trips of this department’s employees in 2019-2020, where Baydachnyi is listed as a leading inspector of the patriotic education department. Both – Baydachnyi and Shulika – are founders of the public organization «Dnipropetrovsk Regional Union of ATO Warriors».

On the same group photo of «Reznichenko’s Team» there is another person – Yuriy Holyk. He was Reznichenko’s advisor when he headed the RSA. They are longtime associates – they worked together since the 2000s. Reznichenko personally invited Holyk to each of his new positions. «I worked for him as a de facto deputy for the last few years», – Holyk told in a 2021 interview. 

Yuriy Holyk is often called  the «ideologist» and «curator» of the «Great Construction» program. He held no official position, but journalists have repeatedly recorded him at key meetings in the President’s Office on infrastructure issues.

But not only this connects Holyk with people around the veterans’ spaces program. The festival «Songs Born in the ATO» he publicly called «ours». This is the festival coordinated by Nataliya Shulika on behalf of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration. 

After searches in 2023, according to media reports, Yuriy Holyk left Ukraine through the «Shlyakh» system as a driver-volunteer of the charitable foundation «Songs Born in the ATO».

The searches were related to the NABU investigation opened after publications by UP and «Schemes». Then journalists established that the company «Budinvest Engineering», owned by a close friend of Valentyn Reznichenko, received more than 1.5 billion UAH from the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration – an anomalously high amount compared to other regions.

In 2024, NABU reported suspicion against Valentyn Reznichenko and four other persons for embezzling 286 million UAH. In December 2025, the investigation was completed, materials were transferred to court, and the amount of proven damages established by the investigation increased to 392 million UAH.  

Yuriy Holyk is a figure in the same NABU case. In May 2024, it turned out that investigation data was «leaked» to Holyk himself. Then SAPO conducted searches at a NABU employee on suspicion of disclosing investigation materials. Searches were also conducted twice at Yuriy Holyk himself.

Yuriy Holyk’s name appears not only in the veterans’ spaces program. The National Military Memorial Cemetery — another major project of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs. Bihus.Info journalists established that for the tender for the first stage of construction worth 1.75 billion UAH, only one participant showed up – a concern created the day after the tender announcement, behind which stands Yuriy Holyk. The chief architect of the memorial, Serhiy Derbin, collaborated with Holyk back during the «Great Construction». Officially, on behalf of the ministry, Viktor Baydachnyi also reports on the construction of the memorial cemetery 

Viktor Baydachnyi refused to comment for this article.

Yuriy Holyk confirmed to journalists his connection with the «Songs Born in the ATO» foundation. According to him, he has been involved in organizing the festival of the same name since 2016, and after the full-scale invasion, he repeatedly traveled abroad on behalf of this foundation – delivering volunteer aid for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Holyk assures that he currently lives in Kyiv. He knows Viktor Baydachnyi, but «hasn’t heard anything about him for seven or eight years».

Yuriy Holyk denied any involvement in the veterans’ spaces construction program. «If I had – such spaces in the fifth year of the full-scale war would have been built long ago across the country and would be an example to follow, rather than remaining at the design and discussion stage. Moreover, they would have been built with non-budgetary funds», – he stated. He called the appearance of his name next to the already second major construction project of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs «someone’s fantasies and inventions».