Head of Ukraine's investigative bureau gives first on-camera comment on brother's 143-property probe
Oleksiy Sukhachov, director of Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation (DBR), spoke on camera for the first time to journalists from Slidstvo.Info about an investigation into 143 real-estate assets linked to his brother Oleksandr. At a public sports ground in Kyiv on the morning of October 8, Sukhachov dismissed the findings as inaccurate and directed journalists to his brother. Unidentified men in black — one claiming to be a law enforcement officer — physically obstructed the journalist's filming during the encounter.
Key points
- DBR director Oleksiy Sukhachov gave his first on-camera comment on October 8 at a public sports ground in Kyiv's Solomiansky district
- Sukhachov told Slidstvo.Info the information about his brother's real estate "does not correspond to reality" and advised them to contact his brother
- Unidentified men in black, one claiming to be a law enforcement officer, blocked Slidstvo.Info journalist Oleh Kotiuzhansky from filming and ordered him to put away his phone
- The probe concerns 143 apartments and office premises in Kharkiv once owned by Oleksandr Sukhachov, bought at balance-sheet prices well below market value from LLC "Parkovyi-2"
- In July 2018, 30 of those apartments were purchased at prices reported between roughly 24,000 and 49,000 hryvnias each (about $932–$1,856)
- On July 7 the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv banned Slidstvo.Info from publishing the investigation; dozens of Ukrainian outlets then released the material under "Initiative 143," and on September 23 the Kyiv Court of Appeals overturned the ban
- Reporters Without Borders, the International Press Institute and the Media Movement condemned the court's original publication ban
Why it matters
The DBR is one of Ukraine's top law-enforcement bodies, and the alleged scale of the property purchases by the director's brother — 143 Kharkiv apartments and offices bought well below market value from a developer that later attracted DBR scrutiny itself — raises conflict-of-interest and corruption questions. The story also becomes a press-freedom test: a Ukrainian court initially banned publication, prompting dozens of Ukrainian outlets to publish in solidarity and international press-freedom groups to condemn the ruling. The October 8 encounter, in which unidentified men apparently used the claim of being law enforcement officers to obstruct a journalist filming a senior official, adds a separate concern about intimidation of the press.
What happened
On the morning of October 8, Slidstvo.Info journalist Oleh Kotiuzhansky approached DBR director Oleksiy Sukhachov at a public sports ground in Kyiv's Solomiansky district and asked how his brother had acquired ownership of 143 real-estate objects in Kharkiv. Sukhachov told him the information "does not correspond to reality" and said journalists should contact his brother, adding that they were entering his personal space during his sports training and had ruined his mood. During the encounter, a group of unidentified men in black clothing surrounded Sukhachov; one of them told Kotiuzhansky he was a law enforcement officer, blocked his way, ordered him to put away his phone and pushed him away, obstructing filming. The exchange was Sukhachov's first on-camera comment on the investigation. The probe itself, by Slidstvo.Info and the Anti-Corruption Action Center (TsPK), examined 143 apartments and office premises in Kharkiv once owned by Oleksandr Sukhachov, a Kharkiv businessman and the director's brother, which had been bought at balance-sheet prices significantly below market value from LLC "Parkovyi-2." In July 2018, 30 of those apartments in one Kharkiv residential complex were purchased at prices reported in the range of roughly 24,000–49,000 hryvnias each (about $932–$1,856 at the then exchange rate). Oleksandr Sukhachov no longer owns almost any of these objects, having re-registered or sold them to third parties. On July 6, Judge Serhiy Vovk of the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv banned Slidstvo.Info from publishing the investigation — on the very day the journalists and TsPK were preparing the material — and on July 7 the ruling became public. On July 13, LLC "Parkovyi-2" filed suit seeking to bar Slidstvo.Info, TsPK and journalist Alina Stryzhak from publishing related information. On July 16, eight Ukrainian outlets joined the solidarity action "Initiative 143" and published the investigation simultaneously; on July 17, 17 Ukrainian media, including NV, ZN.UA and Detektor Media, released the material under the title "Apartments for the price of a smartphone," and within three days it had drawn nearly 4 million views. On July 22, Judge Vovk denied requests by TsPK and Slidstvo.Info to lift the ban. On September 23, the Kyiv Court of Appeals overturned the Pechersky court's ruling. Reporters Without Borders, the International Press Institute and the Media Movement all issued statements condemning the original ban and warning against using the justice system to censor public-interest investigations.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
All of the supplied sources are Ukrainian-language media based in Ukraine — NV, ZN.UA, hromadske and Detektor Media — and they frame the case primarily around press freedom and the legal battle over the publication ban. Coverage centers the July court order blocking Slidstvo.Info, the joint "Initiative 143" publication by dozens of Ukrainian outlets, the subsequent overturning of the ban on appeal, and now Sukhachov's first public comment. Ukrainian reporting also foregrounds the unusual economics of the purchases — apartments bought at balance-sheet cost well below market value — and the irony that LLC "Parkovyi-2" later attracted the DBR's own scrutiny without any charges being brought.
How international sources describe it
International coverage in the supplied material is limited to statements from foreign press-freedom organizations. Reporters Without Borders expressed concern over the Pechersky court's ruling and said the justice system should not be used to censor investigations of public interest; the International Press Institute condemned the decision; and the Media Movement and other media and civil-society groups warned of what they called signs of systemic pressure on investigative journalists by law-enforcement structures. The supplied source set does not include non-Ukrainian outlets reporting on Sukhachov's October 8 comments, so no separate international framing of the encounter itself appears in the material.
Where reporting differs
Sources disagree on the number of Ukrainian outlets that joined "Initiative 143": one outlet reports that eight media published simultaneously on July 16, another says 17 outlets — including NV and ZN.UA — published on July 17, and a third describes 16 or 19 additional outlets joining later. Sources also differ slightly on the per-apartment price reported for the July 2018 purchases, with one article giving 24,000–49,000 hryvnias and another 25,000–50,000 hryvnias, both noting an approximate dollar equivalent of around $932–$1,856.
Background
The July court ban prompted one of the largest acts of journalistic solidarity in recent Ukrainian media: dozens of outlets published the Slidstvo.Info/TsPK investigation under "Initiative 143" before the Kyiv Court of Appeals overturned the ban on September 23. The investigation itself documented how a large batch of Kharkiv apartments and offices changed hands at balance-sheet prices far below market value via a developer — LLC "Parkovyi-2" — that built the complexes without proper permits through a reconstruction-of-non-residential-buildings scheme and that itself later drew the attention of the very agency now led by the subject's brother, without any charges being brought.