Following the publication of an investigation into a premium-class apartment in Kyiv registered to the 69-year-old mother-in-law of Vitalii Koval, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, the website of the Slidstvo.Info agency was subjected to a hacker attack. 

This was reported to Slidstvo.Info by the company that provides security for the agency’s website. The company noted that the attack began on 23 September at 17.00 (the material about Vitalii Koval was published at 16.01 — ed.) and lasted for about half an hour. The agency’s website continued to work during the attack.

‘Although the DDoS attack was not directed against a specific article on the website, it is hardly a coincidence that it started an hour after the publication of the article about the Minister of Agrarian Industry and Food. Now, such attacks against investigative media shortly after incriminating publications are themselves indicative of their target,’ said Esther Eriksson, Managing Director of Qurium, the company that maintains Slidstvo.Info website. They continue to investigate the data that was captured during the attack.

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As a reminder, during their investigation, journalists discovered that the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Vitalii Koval lives in a 170-square-metre apartment in a premium residential complex in Kyiv. The apartment belongs to his 69-year-old mother-in-law, who apparently had no official income to buy it. 

A document provided to Slidstvo.Info by sources contains information that during 2014-2020, Halyna Baraniuk earned a total of UAH 495 thousand. That is, on average, her monthly income during these seven years was UAH 6 thousand per month. The journalists found out from the real estate register that Halyna Baraniuk did not sell any real estate.

The property could have cost 17.7 million hryvnias ($650,000 at the dollar exchange rate of the time) and was purchased when Vitalii Koval was head of the Rivne Regional State Administration and his affiliated companies were awarded billions of dollars in contracts for the construction, repair and maintenance of roads in the region.

The minister himself did not respond to calls and messages from Slidstvo.Info journalists about the apartment.

Vitalii Koval was appointed Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food on 5 September 2024, before that he headed the State Property Fund, and before that he worked for four years as the head of the Rivne Regional State Administration.

The video has English subtitles.

READ ALSO: The Minister Lives in His Mother-in-Law’s Apartment Worth UAH 17.7 Million. She Apparently Had No Official Income to Buy It