Zelenskyy ally’s production company gets UAH 341 million from budget, halts operations after Mindich flees
Kinokit LLC, which previously produced content for the Rada TV channel as part of the national telethon, has currently suspended operations.
Detector Media reports this, citing sources, Censor.NET informs.
The company has ceased operations and laid off employees
Most employees have been laid off and paid for their work. The studio and leased premises are currently empty, and the equipment was removed in mid-January.
A Detector Media source claims that Kinokit’s editor-in-chief, Nataliia Yastrubenko, has also been dismissed.
It is noted that the shutdown of the production company occurred without explanations, staff were only told that it was related to the Rada channel not announcing an artistic competition. At the same time, employees were not informed of the reasons why the competition was not held.
The last in-house broadcast of Rada, produced by Kinokit, aired on December 31 with a year-end news program, and for a month now the channel has only been broadcasting the telethon.
The company received 341 million hryvnias from the budget
MP from European Solidarity Iryna Herashchenko recalled that UAH 341 million was allocated from the budget to Kinokit, which is linked to fugitive businessman Timur Mindich.
"UAH 341 million was siphoned off from the budget of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to Mindich’s Kinokit over these years. How many inquiries and appeals I have sent over these years, starting in December 2021, to the management of the Rada TV channel and the Verkhovna Rada demanding that this abnormal cooperation be stopped, because for the first time in the history of parliament, without an open competition, through a single-bidder procedure and in a corrupt manner, a shady outfit received hundreds of millions of hryvnias in budget funds that were supposed to go toward covering the activities of the Verkhovna Rada, but instead went to finance media hitmen from Bankova, Petrov and Ivanov, who specialized in destroying the reputation of the Verkhovna Rada and opposition MPs. According to Yaroslav Zhelezniak, these characters received half a million hryvnias for information attacks on the opposition… The Verkhovna Rada is terminating cooperation with Kinokit after the scandal involving Mindich. But who will be held accountable for corruption and political censorship in parliament?" the lawmaker wrote.
More about the company Kinokit
Previously, Censor.NET reported that Kinokit was founded in 2017. It began participating in public procurement in 2019, after Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s team came to power. For example, this production company was responsible for the technical support and broadcast of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s press marathon in 2019 and the events marking the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence.
- At the end of 2021, Kinokit received UAH 9 million from the parliamentary TV channel Rada to develop a concept and new programs.
- At the time this first multimillion-hryvnia contract with the parliamentary TV channel was signed, Kinokit’s founders changed. Yuliia Drozdova became the owner of the production company. Before entering this successful business, Drozdova was a legal adviser to Meylor Global LLP, which is controlled by Timur Mindich, a film producer and businessman, one of the co-owners of Kvartal 95 and a close friend of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
