Chernyshov is on scheduled business trip abroad. He is expected to return, - Zelenskyy
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Unity Oleksii Chernyshov is currently on a scheduled business trip abroad, after which he is expected to return.
The head of state said this during a meeting with journalists, Censor.NET reports.
"What Shmyhal told me was that he was on a business trip. He had two tasks from me, from the government, from all of us: the first is to open hubs in different countries, and the second is multiple citizenship. As far as I understand, he is doing these two things," the president said.
Zelenskyy said that Chernyshov should return after the business trip.
"The business trip will end - I have to return, that's all," the head of state added.
What is known about corruption in the Ministry of Reconstruction under Chernyshov?
Last week, the NABU served five people with a notice of suspicion in a case of corruption in the construction sector involving top government officials.
In particular, Vasyl Volodin, a member of the Board of Naftogaz of Ukraine, Maksym Horbatiuk, Chief Commercial Officer of Ukrgazvydobuvannya, Alla Sushon, former Director of Ukrkomunobbuvannya, and Serhii Kopystria, a developer, were suspected of abuse of office, receiving and giving an undue advantage in a particularly large amount.
On 13 June, the HACCU arrested Horbatiuk with the possibility of posting UAH 25 million bail, on 17 June, the court arrested Volodin with an alternative of UAH 20 million bail, and on 20 June, the developer Kopystria was granted a preventive measure in the form of arrest with an alternative of UAH 100 million bail.
At the time of the crime, Volodin was the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Horbatiuk was an adviser to the head of the ministry, Oleksii Chernyshov, who later became the head of Naftogaz, where his associates also went to work. Chernyshov is now the head of the Ministry of National Unity and is abroad.
According to the investigation, the developer developed a scheme to illegally obtain a land plot in Kyiv for the construction of a residential complex. To do this, he turned to top officials of the Ministry of Regional Development, who created the conditions for the transfer of land to a state-controlled enterprise. The latter illegally entered into investment agreements with the construction company in question. At the same time, the land and the buildings on it were valued at almost five times cheaper, and the difference between this valuation and the market value exceeded UAH 1 billion.
According to the UP, NABU detectives planned to conduct a search of Chernyshov' s place a year ago, but it was cancelled at the request of the Bureau's director, Semen Kryvonos. At the same time, Chernyshov secretly met with Kryvonos, later explaining that the meeting was to discuss the anti-corruption programme of Naftogaz. Kryvonos himself denied any involvement in the cancellation of Chernyshov's searches.
