"Investigation for sale": Who is police Colonel Yakiv Melnyk

Yakiv Melnyk, Deputy Head of the Investigative Department of the Kyiv Police, became widely known after several publications described his corrupt activities, the schemes he established, and the expensive habits that both he and his wife indulge in.

Journalistic investigations clearly indicate that it is through Melnyk that one of the most powerful schemes operates within the Kyiv police, turning the law enforcement agency into something akin to a "brigade" from the nineties. This immediately made Yakiv Melnyk a central figure in a high-profile public corruption scandal.

Why a Real Colonel Became the Subject of Investigations

According to open sources, Melnyk began his service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs system before the reforms, gradually climbing the career ladder. The first mentions of him in public records date back to around the 2010s, when he worked in the pre-trial investigation structure at the district level.

After the police reform, Melnyk continued his service in the National Police. He later assumed one of the key positions in the investigative unit of the capital. According to the official structure, the Investigative Department of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Kyiv consists of several divisions, and the deputy head is effectively the operational manager, responsible for coordinating investigations, overseeing high-profile cases, organizing the work of investigative teams, and ensuring the results of investigations in the city.

By 2024–2025, Melnyk had become one of the most influential figures in Kyiv’s investigative sphere. It was after his career advancement that, according to journalists, signs of "reviving old schemes" began to emerge. You can read more about the unofficial activities of Police Colonel Yakiv Melnyk here.

In short, journalists discovered that Police Colonel Melnyk owns six apartments, a decent car fleet, a cryptocurrency wallet worth $400,000, eight bank safety deposit boxes with cash amounting to about $700,000, as well as a number of corporate connections that are hard to explain with the official income of a law enforcement officer.

Yakiv Melnyk achieved all of this by effectively turning the Investigative Department into a profitable business, where tariffs were set for registering criminal cases, their "proper" progression, and "resolving issues" related to suspicions and property seizures. At least, that’s what journalists claim.

These publications led to yet another high-profile scandal involving a senior official of the National Police, and Yakiv Melnyk began to be referred to as "one of the most toxic figures in the Kyiv police department."

What’s the real story?

If we turn to Yakiv Melnyk’s declarations, they contradict almost all the facts presented in the investigations. If these declarations are to be believed, we are looking at an almost exemplary police officer who persistently climbs the career ladder and lives on a single salary. However, the key word here is "almost." One could believe it, if not for certain nuances.

As for monetary assets, the declaration, as expected, does not mention any bitcoins or bank safety deposit boxes with cash. The family’s savings, if the declaration is to be believed, have remained unchanged for years. But, as already mentioned, there are nuances.

The first nuance is that the income of this brave policeman’s family sharply increased last year: if in 2023 the Melnyk family earned 631,414 UAH, then in 2024, it was ten times more: 6,340,095 UAH. No, the colonel did not receive a salary increase. Nor did he declare a bribe in a fit of remorse. His wife, like the wives of many of our poor but honest officials, ventured into business. And she suddenly became a super-successful businesswoman, earning nearly six million hryvnias. Of course, she brought this money into the family, and her law-abiding husband declared it.

What’s noteworthy is that just a year before this rapid "startup," Oksana Melnyk was barely scraping by on a social benefit of 10,320 UAH.

There’s also a second nuance – despite such meager income (less than a thousand hryvnias per month), Oksana Ihorivna managed to purchase a prestigious Volkswagen Touareg SUV. True, it was co-owned with another person, Kupchuk Olena.

The interesting details about transportation don’t end there – in the past year, 2024, the Melnyk family upgraded their car fleet: they acquired a new, "fresher" Volkswagen Touareg, to which a Toyota Camry was added. However, this time, these cars belong to other individuals: the same Olena Kupchuk and Kupchuk Ihor. They handed over these cars for the use of Police Colonel Yakiv Melnyk. For free, of course. People love the police, they really do. It’s quite evident.

The third nuance concerns Colonel Melnyk’s housing. According to the same declaration, his family owns two apartments in Kyiv. The policeman and his family use an apartment (118.8 m²) owned by Melnyk Olena (who this person is remains unclear, possibly Yakiv Melnyk’s mother), which has been hers since 2017. They also have another apartment (60.6 m²) in Kyiv, which, since 2023, is co-owned by their children. The value of the property is not specified.

However, there is some confusion in Melnyk’s declarations regarding this. As for the second apartment, which was purchased by the policeman’s minor children in 2023, everything is clear. Well, except for the source of the funds and the price. Although the price isn’t stated, the minimum market value of an old secondary panel apartment of this size would start at around $40,000. That’s assuming they really bought a "panel" apartment. But it doesn’t matter whether it’s secondary or a new build – neither Colonel Yakiv Melnyk nor anyone in his family had such funds in 2023.

As for the first apartment, which Melnyk Olena supposedly bought in 2017, it has been listed in Yakiv Melnyk’s declarations since 2014. And Melnyk Olena purchased it for 1,900,800 UAH, which, at the exchange rate at the time, amounted to about $100,000–120,000. The source of funds for this purchase is as unclear as the source for the apartment bought for the children.

Comments here are clearly unnecessary. However, the nuances don’t end there. If we analyze open data, neither Melnyk Olena could have earned enough in 2014 to buy an apartment, nor could Kupchuk Olena, nor Kupchuk Ihor afford the cars they generously provided to Police Colonel Yakiv Melnyk.

From this, an obvious conclusion emerges – everything that journalists "dug up" on Yakiv Melnyk is just the tip of the iceberg. And it corresponds to reality. Yakiv Melnyk is one of those representatives of the police leadership who have retained influence and control over criminal processes in the capital while finding themselves at the center of serious corruption suspicions. Journalists claim that under his leadership, the Kyiv Investigative Department was turned into a mechanism for "resolving issues," and the Melnyk family’s wealth grew to a level that is hard to explain with the legal income of a public servant.

Currently, no official proceedings against Yakiv Melnyk have been publicly announced. However, the scale and number of materials that have simultaneously appeared in various sources make the situation around Melnyk one that demands a response from the leadership of the National Police, as well as from oversight and anti-corruption bodies.

And one more conclusion: the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NAPC) is merely a fiction. Because in this article, we relied exclusively on open data. Mainly from the declarations of the Deputy Head of the Investigative Department of the Kyiv Police, Police Colonel Yakiv Melnyk. Even a simple analysis of the discrepancies in these declarations raises questions at the very least. And these discrepancies are obvious. Yet, the NAPC has no questions for Yakiv Melnyk.