Komarnytskyi, "watchdog for Kyiv", fled to Vienna, he did not officially cross border - media. VIDEO
Journalist Mykhailo Tkach discovered Denys Komarnytskyi, the "watchdog for Kyiv", in Vienna.
This is stated in the material of the UP, Censor.NET informs.
In a conversation with him, Komarnytskyi called the information reported by NABU and SAPO about him fake news.
He accused the journalists of spying on him and threatened the police. Komarnytskyi also denied that he was hiding from Ukrainian law enforcement.
Komarnytskyi left his phone number with the journalist to get answers to his questions.
"The case you want to discuss is political and is being used to exert political pressure on me as a lawyer. I think you are aware of this. Previous media publications were openly manipulative. As I said, I am ready for a civilised dialogue," he later wrote to Tkach.
Almost a week after the meeting, Komarnytskyi refused to meet with the film crew, providing written answers.
UP sources said that at first Komarnytskyi was hidding from the investigation in Kyiv, then in the Kyiv region, and on 16 February 2025 he ended up in Romania. He did not officially cross either the Ukrainian or Romanian borders.
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of the criminal organisation's activities in 2023-2024, land in the city centre worth UAH 11.6 million was illegally withdrawn from the ownership of the Kyiv territorial community.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 Denys 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.
