The media told about the family business of traitors Bulyuks in the Russian occupation

The traitor Vitaliy Bulyuk, who holds the position of the first deputy head of the occupational "government" of a part of the Kherson region, continues to expand the family business empire along with his wife and sons. The elder son, Viktor Bulyuk, under whose name almost all the business is registered, leads the regional association "People’s Farmer," which is a project of the presidential movement "Russian Popular Front". The younger son, Ihor Bulyuk, was placed in the occupational "government" in a lucrative position, while the family business has expanded with new directions.

Vitaliy Bulyuk is a well-known Kherson corrupt official who has used all possible options and types of corruption for enrichment and building an agricultural empire, from bribes to selling his homeland. This is written by the Journalistic Investigations Center. He headed the customs in the Kherson region, having Igor Kaletnik, the head of the State Customs Service, as a kum. Thanks to this kinship, he became a deputy of the Kherson Regional Council from the Communist Party.

After the Revolution of Dignity, he fell under lustration, but thanks to President Poroshenko’s office, which "gave birth" to the political project "Our Land" from former regionalists and communists, he again infiltrated power, moreover, becoming the deputy head of the Kherson Regional Council. Skadovsk and its port became Bulyuk’s domain, without which no property or personnel issue was resolved there.

To understand the influence, one can mention the disruption of regular ferry flights from Zonguldak to Skadovsk, which the Turks refused due to customs officers’ actions and demands for a large bribe, or blocking the transfer of the former children’s camp "White Wings" property to the Ministry of Defence for the accommodation of the 140th Reconnaissance Battalion of the Marine Corps of the Ukrainian Navy.

Bulyuk was also friends with SSU leaders, in particular, Oleh Kulinich, the former head of the Crimean department of the Service, accused of state treason and cooperation with the FSB of Russia. In the material “FSB Moles in the SSU. What is missing in the Kulinich-Sivkovych case”, we wrote that Oleh Kulinich and the then deputy head of the SSU Volodymyr Horbenko often visited and hunted in the hunting grounds of Vitaliy Bulyuk in southern Kherson region.

Oleh Kulinich, head of the main department of the SSU in the AR of Crimea (2019-2022) Photo: Grati; Volodymyr Horbenko, deputy head of the SBU (2019-2022) Photo: RFE/RL

Bulyuk’s agrarian empire

The Bulyuk family owns a significant land bank, collected through all known shadow schemes – from buying state certificates for plots during the moratorium on the sale of agricultural lands to leasing for pennies, which could not even be paid. Among court decisions, we find this example: for leasing “Agrofirma-Bulyuk” almost two hectares of land, an annual payment of 500 UAH was established, and when the plot owner died, the contract with the heir was not even renewed and continued to be used for free.

The Bulyuks also "saved" a lot on subleasing state lands of the State Enterprise "Rice Institute", the main institution of which was located in Antonivka village, Skadovsk district. Moreover, according to crime investigation data, SHTOV “Agrofirma-Bulyuk” used irrigation systems belonging to the communities but did not reimburse them for expenses. And a lot of water was needed by the Bulyuks – because they grew rice.

Viktor Bulyuk (far right) with workers of SHATOV “Agrofirma-Bulyuk” harvesting rice. 2019. Photo: Rural News

At the time of the Russian occupation of the Kherson region, no business asset was registered under Vitaliy Bulyuk. According to his last declaration submitted in 2021, he did not have a penny of cash – everything was under his wife, Olha Bulyuk (née Zavhorodnya, born in 1974). Just like five residential houses with a total area of 1.9 thousand square meters and a group of houses with almost 600 square meters in Skadovsk and the village of Zabarine, Holoprystanskyi district, a store, and land plots under them.

Shares in two plants are registered to Bulyuk’s wife – “Tavriya Feed Mill” (45%) and Feed Mill “Bekhtery” (50%). Olena Bulyuk is also the owner of a quarter of the statutory capital of LLC “Adelaide Hunter” (hunting grounds in the Zhytomyr region) and a third – in LLC “Nikneft”, which, despite its name, chose hunting as its main activity.

The rest of the assets are registered in the names of Vitaliy and Olena Bulyuk’s sons – Viktor, born in 1995, and three years younger Igor. Since December 2022, Ukrainian companies of the Bulyuks have got clones under Russian jurisdiction – legal entities in the Kherson region belonging to the Bulyuks have been registered in the Russian state register (USRLE RF).

The ownership structure does not differ much, but with a change in Ihor’s circumstances, his shares in three companies last year transferred to Viktor or were formalized under nominees who have long served the Bulyuks’ business. In this material, we focus specifically on the collaborative activities of Vitaliy Bulyuk’s relatives and their minions in the Russian-occupied territory of the Kherson region. However, in the process, we remind you how this empire was built, as its rapid growth and legalization of assets took place precisely at the time when Vitaliy Bulyuk, thanks to political corruption and the "Our Land" project, again found himself "in the saddle" – in 2015, he became a deputy and deputy head of the Kherson Regional Council.

It should be noted that the younger Bulyuks are skillfully covering their tracks: social media pages are closed, mentions in the media are carefully cleaned, and the landowners try not to fall into the lens. But we have found enough evidence that they have already earned their Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (collaborative activity).

Viktor Bulyuk (born February 11, 1995), the main public manager of the family business, was introduced into it in 2016. Being a 21-year-old law student, he became the sole owner of the Private Pharmaceutical Enterprise “Adonis” with a chain of pharmacies of the same name and a co-owner of the hunting LLC “Kinburn Spit” in whose statutory fund all participants invested 625 thousand UAH each.

Among them were business partners and influential people such as Valeriy Khodus, the owner of the leading producer of hunting and sports ammunition "TAHO" company, or Yuriy Yemchenko, the former head of the regional State Tax Service, regional council deputies, and the grandfather of Viktor Bulyuk on his mother’s side – Valeriy Zavhorodniy. He is a co-founder of another active hunting and fishing society – "Yahorlyk" in Holopristanskyi district, and of the already liquidated "Sapsan-Hunter". The total area of hunting grounds where the elder Bulyuk entertained high guests is more than 30 thousand hectares.

In August of the same year, the unfinished lawyer Viktor becomes a co-founder of the legal company “Avellum Legas”. The ultimate beneficiary of the company through PE “Poliexpo” was Iryna Barakh – the wife of Anatoliy Matios, who at that time already held the position of Chief Military Prosecutor, and she herself led a large agricultural business in Kherson region.

Already two years later, Viktor Bulyuk becomes a co-founder of the family’s main company – Agricultural LLC “Agrofirma-Bulyuk”. At that time, his partner was recorded as his grandmother – Zavhorodnya Stefaniya, who accumulated the largest share in the former society “Bolshevik”, and LLC “Service Meat”, registered under the Victor and Ihor Bulyuk brothers.

Viktor Bulyuk also headed two district organizations of the "Our Land" party in the city of Kherson, which was headed by his father in the region. But in 2019, in the early elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Viktor ran from the OPFL, receiving an unelectable No.117 on the party list.

In 2017, a public organization “Development of the Skadovsk Region” was also established in Skadovsk, where Viktor Bulyuk’s co-founders were Kuhut Maksym and Motrynets Mykhailo, who can be boldly called the Bulyuks’ minions.

SHATOV «Agrofirma-Bulyuk» has a land bank of almost 3,000 hectares of land in the Skadovsk district, formed from 833 plots of different sizes, probably bought out plots. How much land is owned by the Russian clone of the Ukrainian agricultural firm is unknown, but there is no doubt that the “Deputy Prime Minister” of the occupational government, Bulyuk Senior, took advantage of the war and the total lawlessness of the civilian population to seize lands from disloyal Kherson residents. At the time of occupation, Viktor Bulyuk’s share in the society was 84.24%, the rest – with his younger brother Ihor Bulyuk.

From left to right: Ihor Bulyuk and Viktor Bulyuk, collaborators. 2021 Photo: khersonci.com.ua

In the Russian jurisdiction, LLC "Agrofirma-Bulyuk" was registered in December 2022, currently, its sole founder and general director are Viktor Bulyuk. He is also the founder of 5 more Russian clones of Ukrainian LLCs: "Service Meat", "Avellum Legas", "B-Agro", "SP Basmati". The new limited liability company – "Tavrida Meat Court", which Viktor Bulyuk owns solely, was registered in the USRLE in December 2023. Financial reports and information about participation in tenders by Bulyuks’ companies are not disclosed.

Last year, Viktor Bulyuk made the first steps into direct participation in occupational politics: as a member of “United Russia," he participated in a party primary before the illegal elections to the "Kherson Regional Duma," but did not gain a significant number of votes, unlike his father.

Viktor Bulyuk (far right) at the meeting of the association of agricultural producers “People’s Farmer,” April 2024. Photo: social media

Instead, Viktor Bulyuk received a position in the quasi-public organization of agricultural producers, “People’s Farmer.” It is part of the all-Russian association with the same name, which is a project of the presidential movement “Russian Popular Front.” The first meeting of the Kherson organization, where the younger Bulyuk was elected leader, was held at a “high level” – with the participation of the occupation vice-speaker of the “Duma” and the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food. The main task of the association in Kherson is to facilitate the involvement of farmers in the Russian legal field in exchange for credit.

Ihor Bulyuk, born May 27, 1998, almost simultaneously joined the family agricultural business and party business. Besides the already mentioned two companies where he is the founder along with his elder brother, Ihor Bulyuk is the founder of LLC “Energy of the South” (65%, the rest – with the already mentioned Mykhailo Motrynets) and the director of the “Bekhtery” Feed Plant, registered under the name of the mother, and becomes a deputy of the Skadovsk city council from the party “Our Land,” headed by the father in the region.

In 2021, Ihor Bulyuk replaces his father as the head of the regional organization of the “Our Land” party. It is noteworthy that among its donors in the election year was LLC “Tavriya Pigs”, whose major shareholder is Vitaliy Bulyuk’s mother-in-law, Stefaniya Zavhorodnya.

Ihor Bulyuk (far left) with other deputies of the Skadovsk City Council from the party “Our Land.” Photo: khersonci.com.ua, 2021

The public activity of Deputy Ihor Bulyuk, which is loyally covered by local media, mainly concerns the distribution of “gift elephants” to children on St. Nicholas Day, helping veterans and large families, etc.

According to the data indicated by Ihor Bulyuk in his 2020 income declaration, he is the owner of an apartment in Kherson and a real estate complex in Skadovsk. It also states that he owned two plots of land and another 15 plots on long-term use rights (emphyteusis). According to the latest data from the analytical system YouControl, Ihor Bulyuk owns 20 land plots.

With the beginning of the Russian occupation of Kherson region, Ihor Bulyuk disappears from the public sphere. However, from the reviews he leaves on his page in the service reviews.yandex.ru, we can conclude that since May 2022, he has been regularly staying in Rostov-on-Don for more than a year, visiting restaurants, music clubs, stores, hotels, and leaving reviews. He writes several times about visiting parks “with the whole family”, and in October 2022, he reports about buying a “future apartment” in the residential complex “Pushkin” in Rostov-on-Don. In August 2023, we see typical tourist reviews from Sochi, and then again from Rostov.

What Ihor Bulyuk was doing in Rostov is unknown. It is possible that he was undergoing some training or apprenticeship for career advancement in Russia. This version is supported by the fact that in 2023, Ihor Bulyuk unexpectedly exited the family business under Russian jurisdiction. In April, he ceased his activity as an individual entrepreneur, and in June, he withdrew from the founders of LLC “Agrofirma-Bulyuk” and “Service Meat”, where his shares transferred to his elder brother. In November 2023, the record of Ihor Bulyuk as the founder of the company “Energy of the South” is removed from the register, replaced by Pavlo Vitaliiovych Belinskyi, another collaborator, former head of the legal department of the State Labor Service in Kherson Oblast, and now a deputy of the occupation council of Skadovsk from the LDPR.

Belinskyi is another minion of the Bulyuks. In May 2024, he registered LLC “Tourist Paradise” in his name at an address in Skadovsk on Schmidt Street, 42, where a residential complex belonging to Ihor Bulyuk is located. Here are also registered, under Belinskyi, “B-Ground” and “Senator-B”, which are clones of a Ukrainian company with already familiar Maksym Kohut as director of both.

The trail of Ihor Bulyuk unexpectedly appears in May this year on the RADOR website – the Russian association of territorial road management bodies. They have a tradition at the beginning of each month to congratulate colleagues from the regions of Russia, and now from the occupied Ukrainian territories, on their birthdays. Thus, in the list of May birthday celebrants, we saw Ihor Bulyuk, with the indicated position – “Deputy Minister of Transport and Transport Infrastructure Development of Kherson region”.

Of course, one can question this source unless one knows that in Russia, which has regressed to a class-based society, “reverence for office” is a sacred ritual that includes public birthday greetings to leaders of various ranks. Therefore, there should be no mistakes here, especially since a few lines above “minister” Aleksandr Balishev is mentioned. Secondly, the occupation administration in the TOT (Temporarily Occupied Territories) of Kherson regionblocks access to information even about the full composition of the “government” leadership; their website is periodically “dead”, and of the 3-4 deputy ministers, only one or at most two are publicly known and allowed on camera.

So, if Ihor Bulyuk has indeed been appointed as the deputy “minister” of transport, it must be acknowledged that he has landed a lucrative position. After all, the main activity of this “ministry” revolves around the major financial flows for the construction of highways, which Russia is pushing at the Stakhanovite pace to create an alternative land corridor from Russia to Crimea.

You won’t believe it, but the first steps into Russian politics have already been made by the daughter of Vitaliy and Olena Bulyuks – schoolgirl Darya, born in 2007.

Darya Bulyuk (far left) and other activists of the “Young Guard of United Russia” awarded with certificates, May 2024. PHOTO: social media 

She does not study in the TOT of Kherson region, where propagandists assure us that a peaceful life and access to education are established. Instead, she attends Simferopol’s school-lyceum No. 3 named after Makarenko. Here, she joined the cell of the youth organization “Young Guard” of “United Russia” and shows great activity, which is rewarded with certificates.