Kateryna Shmyhal, wife of Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal, purchased a 2022 Range Rover Sport and registered it to her newly created company. As journalists discovered, Kateryna Shmyhal may be using the car for personal purposes, which requires declaring property. However, the vehicle is absent from the prime minister’s asset declaration, according to an investigation by Slidstvo.Info.
According to public data, in February 2024, Kateryna Shmyhal established a private enterprise, KADiS UA, intended for hotel business and property leasing, with herself as the sole owner. Journalists found no business activity linked to the firm but discovered that, six weeks after its creation, a 2022 Range Rover Sport was registered to it.
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- YouControl
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- YouControl
Photo of the car leaving the Shmyhals’ house
Prior to this, Kateryna sold her 2016 Land Rover Discovery Sport. In April, her company got a new car – a Range Rover Sport 2022. An archived listing showed the Range Rover was sold last year for $84,500, equivalent to 3.5 million hryvnias.
Kateryna and Denys Shmyhal / Screenshot from the program “High Life”
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The company is listed in Denys Shmyhal’s declaration, but the vehicle is not. According to the declaration, the couple owns no other cars.
Slidstvo.Info found the Range Rover received three speeding tickets in 2024 near the Shmyhal family’s Lviv residence, including one on June 29, 2024, a weekend, suggesting personal use.
Screenshots from surveillance cameras
Journalists also photographed the vehicle parked at the family’s home. So a “commercial” car may well be used for personal purposes.
Photo of the car from behind the fence
Antonina Volkotrub, an analyst at the Anti-Corruption Action Center, said Kateryna Shmyhal should have declared the vehicle registered with her company.
“Non-declaration in this case looks quite odd, since we know that the owner of this legal entity had previously owned a car of the same brand, only a few years older,” says the analyst. “That is, it looks like she (Kateryna Shmyhal – ed.) bought a newer car that she can use not only for business but also for private purposes. Therefore, she should have shown it in her declaration.”
According to Antonina Volkotrub, Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) should investigate Shmyhal’s declaration.
Kateryna Shmyhal did not respond to journalists’ calls or messages about the vehicle for over a week. The prime minister’s office also provided no comment.
Little is known about the Shmyhal family’s activities in Lviv. Kateryna was a co-owner of Kamyanetska Pekarnia bakery until 2016 and briefly appeared as a co-founder of Lviv’s municipal bike-sharing service, Nextbike Ukraine, before her name was removed following media coverage. In a 2021 interview with the “High Life” program, Kateryna said, “I take care of the house so that my husband’s life and finances are good.” In contrast, Denys Shmyhal added that they have a family business operated by his wife, without specifying the nature of the business.
