Yuriy Holyk is known as one of the ideologists of the President of Ukraine’s “Great Construction” program. Despite reports of large-scale budget embezzlement associated with the initiative and his name being linked to a NABU investigation, he reportedly left Ukraine as a volunteer under the “Shlyakh” permit system.

Who is Yuriy Holyk?

Yuriy Holyk is the ideologist of the “Great Construction”, as well as a former advisor to the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration Valentyn Reznichenko.

Since Holyk de jure has no official position, but de facto is deeply involved in these processes — in the media he is usually called the “curator” of the “Great Construction”. He himself describes himself as a “consultant” to the presidential project. Now he is also integrated into the processes of Ukraine’s infrastructure reconstruction and, for example, accompanies Kyrylo Tymoshenko during trips to affected regions.

He has close ties with Reznichenko — they are linked by a number of projects, including infrastructure and budget policy, real estate issues (Reznichenko’s company “Seventh Consulting Group” rents an office in the “Creative State Dnipro” business center, co-owned by Holyk) and …. mothers (Holyk’s mother and Reznichenko’s mother are registered as individual entrepreneurs, indicating the same mobile phone number in the state register).

His current wealth is directly linked to the activities of a certain LLC “Budinvest Engineering”. The co-owner of the company — Yana Khlan — was closely connected with the then-head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, with whom she regularly traveled abroad, and the second half of the company may be controlled by businessman brothers Dubinskyi, who were officially put on the wanted list by Ukraine’s partner state — the United States — on suspicion of financial fraud. In just 3 months of 2023, “Budinvest Engineering” received 1.5 billion hryvnias.

Law enforcement, including the NABU, became interested in these facts. Then, searches were conducted at Holyk’s, as one of the figures in the case, and repeatedly so. In May 2023, two mobile phones were seized from him, which later caused another scandal — related to possible “leaks” of investigation materials from the NABU to Holyk himself.

Holyk’s business empire and family ties

According to open sources, Holyk is the owner of such legal entities as: LLC “77 Online Media”, LLC “Stakhovskyi Vines”, LLC “Creative Country”, LLC “Modern Media Technologies”, LLC “KShS”. However, de facto, he also controls: the already known LLC “Budinvest Engineering”, LLC “Big City Group”, LLC “SK “Stroyinvest”, LLC “EDBK”, LLC “Avtomagistral 2016”.

What is interesting is that Holyk has direct ties to the Russian Federation, which intersect through his father — Yuriy, who is a citizen of the Russian Federation and lives in Moscow. In addition, the man is an employee of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation. Holyk himself repeatedly traveled to see his father, even after 2014. So how could such a person be the curator of a state program with billion-dollar funding?

Escape abroad

In addition to the “Great Construction” and “NABU leaks”, Holyk is also remembered for something else — after numerous scandals, he simply… fled abroad. Moreover, the basis for his departure to Austria was the “Shlyakh” permit — issued by order of the leadership of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration. The validity period of the new permit is six months — until October 16, 2024.

“Holyk left through the “Shlyakh” system with a certificate of disability and is in Austria,” one of the sources writes.

As a volunteer, Holyk received permission to cross the state border in April 2023. This decision was valid until October 20, 2023. A few days before the expiration of the exit period, the Dnipropetrovsk region authorities issued a new order, which extended Holyk’s stay abroad until April 6, 2024.

The ideologist of the “Great Construction” project Yuriy Holyk freely moved around the world under the guise of a volunteer from the “Songs Born in ATO” charity foundation. The founder of the organization is the former deputy of the already ex-head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration Reznichenko — Volodymyr Yurchenko.

By the Krasnohvardiyskyi District Court of Dnipro (ruling dated June 31, 2024, case No. 204/7275/24), authorized persons of the SSU Department in the Dnipropetrovsk region are obliged to enter information into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations regarding the man’s involvement in budget embezzlement, including for reconstruction, with the involvement of controlled structures, including “Budinvest Engineering” and “SK Stroyinvest”. However, the bodies are not in a hurry to conduct this investigation.