In recent years, relatives of the head of the SSU’s Directorate D of the Department for the Protection of National Statehood, Colonel Oleksii Zelenskyi, have acquired cars and motorcycles worth a total of $440,000. In addition, the official’s father-in-law and mother have acquired houses in Koncha Zaspa. One of them was put up for sale for almost $1 million after a conversation with journalists. The official himself notes that he and his family members are engaged in the resale of cars and houses. In total, according to Zelenskyi, he has sold 47 cars over the past 10 years. Journalists also found 5 houses bought/built and sold by Zelenskyi’s relatives in recent years.
This is reported in a new investigation by Slidstvo.Info. The video has English subtitles.
Houses in Koncha Zaspa
During the full-scale invasion, Colonel Oleksii Zelenskyi’s father-in-law became the owner of a 328.2 square metre house.
The property was purchased in May 2023. Six months later, his father-in-law registered the same house of 396.8 square metres.
Oleksii’s wife, Yuliia, posted the progress of the construction on her Instagram. For example, she showed how a swimming pool was being set up.
Colonel Oleksii Zelenskyi told Slidstvo.Info that they paid $240,000 for the house. They bought it in a joint venture to repair and sell it.
“We took the house in Yulia’s father’s name. Part of the money was given by her father, Yulia, my friend. Then a receipt was written immediately. I can talk to my friend, because we paid part of the money for this house,” Zelenskyi said, adding that the house has been on sale for a month and a half.
Instead, Slidstvo.Info found that the announcement of the sale of this house appeared on the day of the official’s conversation with journalists.
In addition, Google’s cache shows that on the same day, the Zelenskyis put their house up for sale for UAH 39 million 460 thousand. That is, for almost USD 1 million.
Oleksii Zelenskyi says that he and his family now live in another house in Koncha Zaspa.
According to the documents, in 2021, Zelenskyi’s mother bought only the plot itself, on which the unfinished house stood at the time. The property cost her only $25,000.
“No, it wasn’t a house, it was walls with a roof. It was an unfinished plot, I don’t remember if they took up to $50,000 (dollars). I was the initiator. Now we live there,” Zelenskyi says.
Real estate expert Yevhen Polunov estimated the purchase at at least $170,000 and noted that the price of $25,000 does not correspond to the market price as of 2021.
Zelenskyi’s car fleet
The Youcontrol service found out that earlier this year, the official’s wife Yuliia became the owner of a green BMW X6 M made in 2023.
In January 2024, such a car was sold on specialised websites for about $137 thousand.
In June 2023, Oleksii Zelenskyi purchased a Mercedes-Benz s 500 (2020). This car was repeatedly caught on cameras recording traffic violations.
Currently, such cars are sold for $120 thousand.
At the beginning of this year, the official’s mother, a former SSU lieutenant colonel, purchased a Lexus LX 600 (2022).
In January, when this car was purchased, similar cars were sold for almost $140 thousand.
In addition, in 2024, Oleksii Zelenskyi and his mother bought two BMW motorcycles with a market price of about $20 thousand.
In a comment to Slidstvo.Info, Oleksii Zelenskyi said that he and his relatives were engaged in the resale of cars: “I have been dealing with cars for 12-15 years. About 47 cars have been sold from my phone number over the past 10-11 years”.
Slidstvo.Info journalists checked this information and indeed found about 20 ads for the sale of cars from the official’s number.
According to Zelenskyi, some of the listed vehicles were purchased at a price significantly lower than the market price because they were damaged. For example, the official claims that a Mercedes-Benz S 500 cost him $78,000, while his wife bought a BMW for “80 and a half”.
According to the investigation, Zelenskyi’s relatives have acquired a total of 5 houses in the Kyiv suburbs in recent years, some of which they have sold.
Serhiy Mytkalyk, chairman of the board of the NGO Anti-Corruption Headquarters, sees the facts collected by Slidstvo.Info and Zelenskyi’s position as signs of business activity of the official, which is prohibited by law.
“There is a clear distinction between business and official activities. Accordingly, if you are an official, you must exclusively perform the functions of the state. As an official, he (Zelenskyi — ed.) had no right to make these resales during his working hours or even outside of working hours. If a law enforcement official is engaged in entrepreneurial or paid activities, the law on the prevention of corruption explicitly prohibits this,” Mytkalyk says.