Vitalii Koval, the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, lives in a 170-square-metre apartment in a premium residential complex in Kyiv. The apartment belongs to his mother-in-law, who apparently had no official income to buy it. The apartment could have cost 17.7 million hryvnias and was purchased when Vitalii Koval was the head of the Rivne Regional State Administration and his affiliated companies received billions of hryvnias in contracts for the construction, repair and maintenance of roads in the region.
This is stated in the investigation by Slidstvo.Info. The video has English subtitles.
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.
Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Vitalii Koval
Slidstvo.Info journalists, investigating the declaration of the new minister, noted: Vitalii Koval declared that since August 2023, his wife has been renting a 170-square-metre apartment in Kyiv. The entire family of the Minister lives in this apartment. The owner of the apartment is Halyna Petrivna Baraniuk.
Screenshot from Vitalii Koval’s declaration
While investigating the apartment, journalists found out that it was located in a premium residential complex built 6 years ago and located near Holosiivskyi Park in Kyiv. The apartment was owned by the minister’s mother-in-law, who bought it in July 2021.
From archived ads from 2020-2021, Slidstvo.Info learned that at that time, renovated apartments of similar size cost between $750,000 and $925,000. At the end of June 2021, an apartment of an identical size — 170 square metres — was for sale in the residential complex where Minister Koval now lives. The advert also stated that it was after builders, with screed and plaster work in place. This apartment on a high floor, according to the advert found, cost 17.7 million hryvnias ($650,000 at the dollar exchange rate of the time).
Halyna Baraniuk, 69, has lived in Chernivtsi all her life. According to information received by journalists from their own sources, Halyna Baraniuk is a pensioner who previously worked as an accountant at various enterprises in Chernivtsi. The document provided to Slidstvo.Info by the sources contains information that between 2014 and 2020, Halyna Baraniuk earned a total of UAH 495,000. That is, her average monthly income during these seven years was UAH 6 thousand per month. The journalists learned from the real estate register that Halyna Baraniuk did not sell any properties that could allow her to buy an apartment in Kyiv for UAH 17.7 million in 2021.
When asked by Slidstvo.Info about the origin of the money for the apartment declared by her son-in-law and where he and his family live, Halyna Baraniuk replied: ‘So what if he declared it’ and hung up.
On the Facebook page of the minister’s wife, Kseniia Koval, journalists found a post from October 2021, where she indicated that she was living in the same residential complex where her mother, Halyna Baraniuk, had bought an apartment three months earlier.
Screenshot of Kseniia Koval’s post
The photos published by the minister’s wife show a spacious apartment after the finishing works, with screed and plaster works done, on a high floor. This corresponds to the description from an archived advert that journalists had previously found, which listed the price of the property at UAH 17.7 million. When the journalists called Kseniia Koval and introduced themselves, she hung up.
Minister Vitalii Koval did not respond to the journalists’ calls and messages about the apartment he lives in.
Slidstvo.Info journalists also examined the minister’s declarations for 2019-2021 and found no information about loans that he or his wife could have provided to Halyna Baraniuk to buy the apartment. There is also no ‘hole’ of UAH 17.7 million in the minister’s declarations for 2019-2021 that could explain the origin of the property.
In the summer of 2021, when the premium apartment in the capital was purchased, Vitalii Koval was the head of the Rivne Regional State Administration, a position he was appointed to by the President in autumn 2019. From the very beginning, he was a representative of the Servant of the People political party.
‘The year before Vitalii Koval was appointed head of the Rivne Regional State Administration, in 2018, he had more than UAH 1,300,000 in debts and tax liabilities. At that time, Vitalii Koval was earning just over UAH 8,000 a month, managing Sanako LLC and BBV Montazh LLC,’ the Rivne-based media outlet Chetverta Vlada noted in its publication.
Myroslava Prymak, a journalist with Chetverta Vlada, said in a comment to Slidstvo.Info that when Koval took over the region, those who received budget funds, in particular for the repair and maintenance of the region’s roads, changed dramatically.
‘Before he took over as head of the administration, he had been running the BBB Montazh construction company for quite some time. And this company received contracts,’ says Myroslava Prymak. ’Our journalists wrote about it. And what happened? They simply bought out Rivneavtoshlyakhbud, I think, because there is no official data. This company began to take over almost all road maintenance in the Rivne region, a large chunk of it, and, in fact, the current capital repairs of roads. We traced the connection between Rivneavtoshlyakhbud and thought it was Vitalii Koval’s influence, because Rivneashlyakhbud simply rented equipment and bought asphalt from this company.’
The connection between BBB Montazh and Rivneavtoshlyakhbud was also pointed out by Bihus.Info. In particular, the article states that this company, which had existed since 2001, began receiving multimillion-dollar contracts with Koval’s arrival. This is confirmed by an analyst from the Prozorro service. Since its inception, Rivneavtoshlyakhbud has received contracts worth UAH 5 billion, 4.5 of which were awarded after Koval took over as head of the region in September 2019. The money was used to build, repair and maintain the region’s roads.
According to Serhii Mytkalyk, head of the Anti-Corruption Headquarters NGO, it is important that the official explains where the money came from to purchase the real estate he uses and the origin of which is questionable. Since the apartment found by Slidstvo.Info journalists could have cost UAH 17.7 million, anti-corruption authorities should investigate the origin of the property.
‘This amount is actually very significant, because the property already exceeds UAH 10 million,’ says Mytkalyk. ’In general, concealing property worth more than UAH 10 million is a serious crime. The penalty for such actions can be up to 10 years in prison and the possibility of civil forfeiture, depending on the circumstances. In this case, we are saying that the National Anti Corruption Bureau and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office may be involved to investigate and establish certain circumstances of the case. And to bring to justice.’
