State Land Bank or Vinnytsia “meeting of friends” around land management

More than 90,000 hectares of state land are accumulated under the management of “State Land Bank” LLC, founded by the State Property Fund of Ukraine, and managed by Yaroslav Yaroslavsky. UNN has already written that in almost a year of its existence, the company managed to lease only a little more than 20,000 hectares of land. We decided to understand the reasons for such “striking” efficiency, and the head of the State Land Bank was the first to attract our attention. 

Optoelectronics, inventions and landYaroslavsky’s labor biography reveals him not only as a specialist in land issues, but also as a scientist. In 2009, he graduated from Vinnytsia National Technical University with a degree in “Laser and Optoelectronic Engineering”. In 2013, he received a second higher education as a land management engineer at Lviv National Agrarian University. While still studying, he started scientific activities and today has a number of patents for scientific inventions and teaches.

In 2008, he started working at the land cadastre branch in Vinnytsia region, and in 2015 he took the position of head of the State Land Cadastre Department of the Main Department of the State Geocadastre in the region.

In 2016, he took the position of Director of the state enterprise “Vinnytsia Research and Design Institute of Land Management”. You should remember the name of this enterprise, which develops all types of land management and land valuation documentation.

Yaroslavsky was also an advisor to the Minister of Agrarian Policy and co-authored a project on Vinnytsia television called “Land Navigator”. 

In 2023, he joined the working group on the implementation of the “Land Bank” project.

In June 2024, he was appointed by the State Property Fund of Ukraine as the head of the State Enterprise “Fund of Agrarian Investments”, which later became “State Land Bank” LLC. 

Two institutesAbove, we asked you to remember the name of the State Enterprise headed by Yaroslavsky in 2016 – “Vinnytsia Research and Design Institute of Land Management” for a reason. When we studied Yaroslavsky’s declarations, we noticed that his wife, Svitlana Yaroslavska, indicated that she received income from an institute with a similar name in 2024. But the form of management is not a State Enterprise, but an LLC.

Of course, such a coincidence attracted our attention. 

According to open information, Yaroslavsky is still listed as the head of the State Enterprise “Vinnytsia Research and Design Institute of Land Management”. 

But in July 2024, a decision was made by the founders (and this is the aforementioned State Property Fund of Ukraine) to terminate the legal entity as a result of reorganization.  And now Yaroslavsky is managing the termination of the legal entity. 

And here’s what’s interesting, in June of the same year (according to the You Control system), “Vinnytsia Research and Design Institute of Land Management” LLC was registered in Vinnytsia. 

And who are the founders? Yaroslavsky’s wife Svitlana and a certain Viktoria Yevpak – we will talk about her a little later, but now let’s talk about the clone of the state research institute. 

The enterprise is registered at the same address as the State Geocadastre Department in Vinnytsia region, as well as the state institute of the same name as the LLC. The main activity of the company is activity in the field of engineering, geology and geodesy, providing technical consulting services in these areas. 

According to our information, some former employees of the state institute have found new jobs in this private structure, which seems to be doing quite well. 

In 10 months of its existence, the LLC participated in 103 purchases, won in 101, concluding agreements for a total amount of UAH 2.41 million. All purchases, except one, took place in Vinnytsia region, and 72 were non-competitive.  The company’s total income for 24 years amounted to UAH 5.2 million. 

Here, logical questions arise: could this company demonstrate such success without being a “namesake” of the state institute? And could it work so confidently without the protection of “land” officials, in particular, Mr. Yaroslavsky? 

Both land surveyor and dentistYaroslav Yaroslavsky’s declaration for 2024 states that his wife received a salary of over 634 thousand hryvnias from “Vinnytsia Research and Design Institute of Land Management” LLC last year. But looking more closely at Svitlana Yaroslavska’s income, we can assume that land management is more of a hobby for her than the main source of income. After all, she received a much larger income as a sole proprietor – over UAH 5.9 million per year. Successful entrepreneurship does not surprise anyone now. But what is interesting is that Yaroslavska, as a sole proprietor, is engaged in either hairdressing, or provides dental services, or trades in cosmetics, or perhaps leases real estate, but in no way engages in engineering, geology or geodesy. 

We tried to find traces of such a successful sole proprietor on the Internet, but did not find any services that he would provide to clients. We also did not find a land surveyor certificate for Yaroslavska. 

Cash, cash and love for BMWIn the latest declaration (for 2024), Yaroslavsky and his wife declared UAH 3 million in cash for two, and his wife also has 5 thousand euros and 11 thousand dollars – also in cash. Such a love for “cash” can be traced in Yaroslavsky’s declarations through the years. 

And a few years ago, the family began to show a fondness for the BMW brand: Yaroslavsky declares that he has been using a BMW X5 since 2023 (owned by a certain Oleksandr Doroshchuk – an entrepreneur from Vinnytsia), and his wife purchased a BMW 530 in 2020. 

A tender attitude towards the German automotive industry is one of the moments, but not the only one, that unites the Yaroslavsky family with the Yevpak family. 

As we wrote above, Viktoria Yevpak, together with Svitlana Yaroslavska, became the founder of “Vinnytsia Research and Design Institute of Land Management” LLC. It is interesting that Ms. Yevpak did not receive any income from this enterprise… at least they are not specified in the declaration of her husband Andriy Yevpak, who works at the state enterprise of the same name as deputy director (and recently also has a position at the State Land Bank). No, no cronyism, just professionalism…

Andriy Yevpak also uses a BMW X7 (20 years of manufacture), which belongs to his mother, Svitlana Pavlivna Yevpak. Before that, he used a BMW X5 (also registered to Svitlana Yevpak). Even earlier, another car was registered to her, but of the Lexus brand.

It is noteworthy that less than two weeks ago, a sole proprietor was registered for Svitlana Yevpak from Vinnytsia, who should carry out activities in the field of engineering, geology and geodesy, providing technical consulting services in these areas. 

We expect that the profits from entrepreneurial activity will allow Svitlana Pavlivna to update her son’s car fleet. 

Land in safe hands?Probably, the detected facts of the interweaving of land officials and members of their families do not end there. But already now this situation with the substitution of institutions, registration of the enterprise in the name of wives and suspiciously successful entrepreneurial activity looks quite ambiguous. And it raises a lot of questions. What does Yaroslavsky’s wife earn so successfully from? Shouldn’t Yaroslavsky take a master class from his other half? Or vice versa, is Yaroslavsky so carried away with helping his wife that he simply forgot that he also manages the State Land Bank? And most importantly: is a significant amount of state land concentrated in truly reliable and unblemished hands?