Law enforcement officers and special services helped Komarnytskyi, "watchdog for Kyiv", to flee abroad - media
Denys Komarnytskyi, a defendant in the "Clean City" case, is abroad. He was able to cross the border thanks to representatives of law enforcement agencies and special services.
According to Censor.NET, ZN.ua reports this with reference to sources.
"It's simple. Definitely, representatives of the Border Guard Service, as well as law enforcement agencies or special services, whom he hand-fed, helped him cross the border illegally. It's unpleasant, but the main question - to find out who helped - will be important for NABU. The process of returning Komarnytskyi to Ukraine will take years, it's a fact," the source said.
Journalist Iryna Vedernikova said that according to the publication, many representatives of law enforcement agencies and special services were actually looking for Komarnytskyi, but among them were people who helped him for money.
"And this is a marker for key heads of law enforcement officials and those who supervise them on Bankova Street. Including Oleh Tatarov. With the arrest of the fictitious company directors and the main defendant in a large-scale corruption case in Kyiv out of NABU's reach, the question of the 'quality', or rather the rottenness, of Ukraine's law enforcement and intelligence services is once again raised. The SSU, controlled by Bankova Street, has already destroyed the operational materials of the Komarnytskyi case, where wiretaps confirmed the involvement of the OP in corruption. This time, the main person involved, who could tell the investigation a lot about the nature of power in the capital and the country, was illegally transferred abroad. Who did it? If you didn't help Komarnytskyi escape, then find those who did and show it to the country," she said.
The Komarnytskyi case
On 6 February this year, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office announced the exposure of a criminal organisation headed by Denys Komarnytskyi, a person involved in the Bihus.Info investigations, who was called the "watchdog for Kyiv".
The scheme consisted of searching for promising land plots and registering ownership of structures that had never existed on those plots in the name of controlled persons. Subsequently, applications were submitted to the city council to grant them ownership of the land plots for the maintenance of these structures, which allowed them to avoid bidding.
Members of the Kyiv City Council and officials of the Kyiv City State Administration ensured the adoption of decisions on granting the relevant land rights, for which they received bribes in the form of money and real estate.
According to the investigation, as a result of the criminal organisation's activities in 2023-2024, land in the city centre worth UAH 11.6 million was illegally withdrawn from the ownership of the Kyiv territorial community.
Who is Denis Komarnytskyi?
Denys Komarnytskyi was the leader of the "Leonid Chernovetskyi's Bloc" faction in the Kyiv City Council in 2008-2010 and has long-standing interests in the construction industry. In 2020, MP Geo Leros handed over to Bihus.Info journalists a flash drive with copied contents of one of Komarnytskyi's work computers, which the SSU had seized during previous searches. The computer contained so-called "concepts" related to the functioning of the city's construction market.
The published materials revealed that in recent years Komarnytskyi was the main "overseer" of the construction and utilities sectors in Kyiv. In particular, companies associated with Komarnytskyi regularly received large construction and reconstruction contracts from Kyiv utilities.
Among other things, he was a beneficiary of the general contractor for the construction of the Podil Bridge Crossing in Kyiv, the estimated cost of which increased from UAH 11.2 billion to UAH 19.9 billion by the decision of the Kyiv City Council.
After Volodymyr Zelenskyy won the presidential election, Komarnytskyi's influence in Kyiv grew significantly, and Bihus.Info journalists called Komarnytskyi "the watchdog for Kyiv from the President's Office".
In particular, journalists discovered the ties between Komarnytskyi and MP Mykola Tyshchenko, which in 2020 led to the inclusion of people close to Komarnytskyi on the list of the "Servant of the People" in the local elections in Kyiv. This led to a conflict within the political party itself.
In 2020, an audio recording of a telephone conversation between Deputy Mayor of Kyiv Viacheslav Nepop and Komarnytskyi was posted online.
