In mid-March, a news story spread online that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau had allegedly detained Dmytro Kovalenko, the owner of agricultural and mining companies. The information has not been officially confirmed yet, but it allowed tracing Kovalenko’s connections, which on one side led to separatists and sanctioned individuals, and on the other – to high-ranking officials in Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies.

Dmytro Kovalenko is not a very public businessman. In the past, the media suspected him of purchasing coal in occupied territories. However, he is trying to clean the internet of these mentions through courts. Since 2023, Kovalenko has sharply changed his field of activity and became the owner of the agricultural holding «Granova». Then he ventured into the mining business and finally leased land in Transcarpathia for the construction of an industrial park.

It was in Transcarpathia, in Uzhhorod, according to information from journalist Vitaliy Hlahola, that law enforcement officers detained Dmytro Kovalenko.

In 2024, the Svalyava City Council supported the creation of the «Energy Group» industrial park in the region. LLC «VDL» received 10 hectares of land for its construction. The co-founders of this company are Leonid Ivanov, Dmytro Kovalenko, and his Cypriot offshore company Afki investments limited.

This same Ivanov is a co-founder of LLC «EDL Glass», which built a factory for the production of glass units «EDL Glass» on the park’s territory. Together with Ivanov, the company is owned by Dmytro Kovalenko’s son, Danylo.

Leonid Ivanov turned out to be a very interesting person with extensive business connections. In 2018, he, together with the current head of the State Bureau of Economic Security in Poltava region, Oleh Pakhnits, founded the law firm association «De-facto».

Upon taking office at the SBS in 2022, Pakhnits declared a stunning declaration, including tens of thousands of square meters of land, a lot of non-residential premises, apartments, numerous cars. He even had a small private plane. Most of Pakhnits’ land plots are located in the village of Mykilske-na-Dnipri in Dnipropetrovsk region. By the way, in the same settlement is the luxurious estate of oligarch Ihor Kolomoiskyi.

Before joining the SBS, Pakhnits had been in business since 2014, which his wife continues to run now. Together with the mentioned business partner of Kovalenko, Leonid Ivanov, Svitlana Pakhnits is a co-founder of the Trading House «Relax» and Private Enterprise «Relax».

From the late 90s until 2014, Pakhnits worked in prosecutor’s offices. And this is already a traditional story for Ukrainian law enforcement officers, when after service they suddenly become successful businessmen. But to head the regional Bureau of Economic Security after business is quite rare.

In the context of the connection between Dmytro Kovalenko and SBS officer Oleh Pakhnits, there is an interesting detail. The Poltava SBS is investigating possible abuses by the «Granova» holding. Kovalenko’s companies are suspected of schemes to reduce tax burden. In particular, the investigation found that «Granova» bought grain for cash, then «drawing» fictitious tax invoices.

«In the proceedings of the detectives of the Detectives Unit of the Territorial Department of the SBS in Poltava region, there is criminal proceeding No. 42024170000000045 dated 19.04.2024 for signs of a criminal offense under Part 3 of Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, on the fact that a group of persons in Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhya regions on a permanent basis purchases agricultural products for cash without reflection in accounting and tax reporting, followed by its registration on the details of economic entities with signs of riskiness and sale in export mode without returning foreign exchange revenue, thereby evading taxes on an especially large scale», – states the materials of the court case.

During the operational support of the criminal proceeding, the detectives received operational information regarding the purchase of agricultural crops for cash by officials of interconnected enterprises of the «Granova» group, which includes: LLC «Granova Pryluky», LLC «Granova Krasnopavlivka», LLC «Granova Myrhorod», LLC «Granova Ukraine».

In the fall of 2024, searches were conducted at the enterprises and documents were seized proving probable tax evasion. However, in December 2024, the court refused to seize the property seized from the companies of the «Granova» group.

The situation looks somewhat strange, as the head of the Poltava SBS, Pakhnits, is actually connected to businessman Kovalenko, whose companies the bureau is investigating. This shows a clear conflict of interest.

77% of LLC «Granova Ukraine» is registered to Serhiy Tihlyi. As can be learned from the court document, he is the head of security for Dmytro Kovalenko. This same security guard in 2019 was among the co-founders of LLC «Atem-plus», a participant of which was also Nataliya Starovoytova.

This woman was a co-founder of LLC «Eximsil», which massively wins state tenders for the supply of salt. She also appears in the documents of LLC «Grofert», where Kovalenko’s son Danylo and another of his Cypriot offshore companies Afex investments limited were involved.

Dmytro Kovalenko’s son Danylo until December last year also owned a company engaged in salt sales – LLC «Salt Industry». His partner in it was the former head of the state enterprise «Artem-salt» Viktor Yurin.

Starovoytova is connected to Kovalenko by another company – «Navigator Invest». In it, the businessman cooperates with the group of former MP Vitaliy Danylov and Serhiy Probilov. But the company with a similar name «Navigator Maynytske» the businessman bought from the scandalous businessman Ihor Mazepa. This company is engaged in gas extraction at the Maynitske field.

And although Kovalenko is now allowed to develop a gas field, in the past law enforcement suspected him of illegal extraction of minerals. Until spring 2025, he was one of the co-founders of LLC «Drevstetskompaniya». In 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine exposed the company for starting industrial amber extraction in Zhytomyr region instead of field research. Searches were conducted and dozens of kilograms of illegally extracted raw amber, packaged by fraction, preliminarily valued at over 2.5 million hryvnias, were seized. That is, a suspect in illegal amber extraction is now allowed again to extract, though a different resource – gas.

Returning to the security guard Serhiy Tihlyi, on whom some of Dmytro Kovalenko’s companies are registered, an interesting detail was found. His wife, Nataliya Andrushyna, works as a senior operational officer of the National Police in Dnipropetrovsk region. In her declaration, she indicated that her husband works at LLC «Granova Ukraine», though his salary was not specified.

Another interesting person works in the «Granova» group of companies – Anastasiya Timanova. This woman headed Kovalenko’s Dubai company Plaimp SFP limited. «ANTIKOR» previously wrote that essentially it is a credit union that buys debts. One of the debtors was the company of Russian billionaire Konstantin Strukov «MelTEK».

Until 2021, Timanova was also in LLC «Agrofirma Yasenivska», which was managed by Yuriy Fesenko from the sanctioned lists of the National Security and Defence Council. The company is engaged in coal mining, and Dmytro Kovalenko himself was previously involved in it.

Kovalenko was also a co-founder of LLC «GOF Dariivska», which in 2012 passed to the nephew of the former so-called «LPR» deputy minister Oleksandr Melnychuk. Although as of 2025, the company still belongs to the collaborator of the occupiers Melnychuk, it is registered in Kyiv. In 2021, «Slidstvo.Info» reported that the younger Melnychuk from the occupied Luhansk region earns millions from coal trade in Ukraine.

Thus, no matter how Kovalenko tries to clean the internet of mentions of work with occupiers, the facts indisputably point to it. It is all the more strange that among his extensive network of connections, he is linked to certain figures in law enforcement agencies. If it turns out that it was Kovalenko who promoted his friend from Dnipro to the position of head of the Poltava SBS, it will be a very dangerous precedent. After all, in that case, it will turn out that someone who collaborates with separatists has influence on a law enforcement agency in Ukraine.