An organized criminal group that raids enterprises, extorts, covers illegal logging, sand mining, and the construction of residential buildings operates in the Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky district of the Kyiv region. And the local prosecutors are at the top of it all.

One of them is Yuri Dmitrun - the head of the Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky local prosecutor’s office. And the other one is Dmitry Zhitnik - his right hand, the head of the Obukhov department of the prosecutor’s office, whose primary role is to keep the entire Obukhiv district in fear, where even local residents have repeatedly tried to bring justice upon him. However, all these attempts were unsuccessful as Zhitnik has a protector-corruptionist Dmitrun who also happens to be his immediate supervisor.

There were 95 staff members in the Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky local prosecutor's office in March 2020. It consists of the following departments:

• Vyshgorodsky;

• Vasilkovsky;

• Irpensky;

• Makarovsky;

• Obukhovsky.

There are considerably fewer staff members working in other local prosecutor's offices. It turns out that Dmitrun’s jurisdiction includes the most tidbit areas of the Kyiv region, the territorial division of which defies logic. Thus, the question of the corruption component arises by itself.

Dmitrun’s assets

It might appear at first that, when compared to other officials, the head of the Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky local prosecutor’s office Yuri Dmitrun has an average income and insignificant assets that are registered in the name of his spouse. These include a small apartment in Kyiv and a land plot in the Vyshgorod district where the family of the prosecutor began the construction of a private house.

But this is just a front for the true face of the prosecutor. In real life, Yuri Dmitrun is said to be the richest prosecutor in Ukraine. More than 60 apartments and 14 non-residential premises, as well as significant shares in various enterprises, are registered in the name of his figureheads.

For instance, his mother-in-law who, after a series of criminal proceedings regarding deforestation and development of the Buchan forest, became the owner of a private kindergarten LLC “KulBabochka” in the city of Bucha. The mentioned kindergarten is located on the territory of the scandalous residential complex "Kampa". What is more, his wife Lilia Dmitrun is also listed as the director there.

Housing complex “Kampa” was built by the scandalous developer Anton Mironchuk, whom local activists accused of beating public figures and burning their cars. Prosecutor Yuri Dmitrun closely communicates with the developer and, according to a number of publications, receives a monthly “fee” for his services. Criminal proceedings concerning Anton Mironchuk’s case have been put on pause in the Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky prosecutor's office. It becomes clear how the mother-in-law of the prosecutor, Raisa Markitanyuk, became the owner of the property for a 120 square meter kindergarten.

The “small business” of relatives, as well as the land (957 sq. m.), purchased in 2019 by his wife in Oseshchina (Vyshgorodsky district) on the banks of the Dnipro river at a lowered price, makes it clear that it is just the tip of the iceberg.

How Dmitrun covers for criminals

In reality, the criminal schemes of the Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky prosecutor happen on a much larger scale. Indeed Yuri Dmitrun alone controls the illegal development in the cities of Vishnevoe and Irpin, covers up all land scams, and also closes criminal cases for remuneration. And other criminal proceedings can simply not be investigated for a certain reward, like that of apartments registered in the name of figureheads.

For example, the prosecutor’s brother-in-law, Igor Markitanyuk, being a student, has continuously been receiving property with each of Yuri Dmitrun’s new appointments. During the period when Dmitrun was the prosecutor of the Vyshgorod district, Markitanyuk became the owner of a 0.1 ha land plot for individual summer cottage construction on the territory of the Demidov Village Council.

A similar plot of land was received by a friend and neighbor of the prosecutor Vitaly Bogdashevsky. After Yuri Dmitrun became the prosecutor of the Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky district, his brother-in-law, who was only 18 years old at that time, purchased a106.9 square meter three-room apartment in the village of Chayki in the Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky district at a lowered price.

And when we take a look at the transformation of the official assets of Dmitrun and his wife over the past 5 years (displayed in the declarations), we can find legends circulating in various publications (you can learn more about the declarations here).

Millions of cash from sand

It is also no longer a secret that during the pre-trial investigation of the Prosecutor General’s Office on the illegal enrichment of the prosecutor Yury Dmitrun, the information that he was covering up for the activities of illegal sand miners working in the sandpits of the Kyiv region (in the villages of Khotyanovka, Khodosovka, Pohreby, Rozhny, Kozin, etc.) became public.

From this corruption scheme, Dmitrun receives several million dollars annually. From illegal sand producers in the Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky district alone there are kickbacks in the amount of 30% to 40% of the sand price every month which are received through intermediaries. This amount allows him not to prosecute them and to close the existing criminal proceedings in court.

An equally important source of income for the Dmitrun family is the monthly fee from illegal gas stations, as well as the percentage of shadow transactions of companies operating in the illegal gas market of the Kyiv region.

Yuri Dmitrun was the one who slowed down many criminal proceedings:

1. "Poroshenko Network" - a system of buying votes in the 2019 presidential election. It was organized by the chairman of the Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky district state administration Miroslava Smirnova and the chairman of the same district council Vadim Gedulyanov. Also, Smirnova illegally used the “Care” district program to provide financial assistance “from Poroshenko” to low-income residents of the Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky district.

2. The school meals kickback scheme. Children are being fed either expired foods or none at all. At the same time, 20% of the kickback from food supplies is earned. The leaders of communal enterprises who are in on it are the director of the Public Enterprise “Baby Food” Valery Smirnov and the director of the Public Enterprise “School Canteens” Andrei Koba. The officials were caught red-handed, precisely at the time of receiving a bribe from the entrepreneur. According to the testimonies of former employees of public enterprises, some of these funds Koba and Smirnov took “upstairs” to the offices of district leaders. Of course, with the help of Dmitrun, they did not go to prison, and Smirnov was reinstated and still organizes food deliveries for children.

3. Attempted raider takeover of an interschool training and production plant in the city of Irpin, in the fall of 2018. The Buchan city council decided to appropriate the premises of the educational institution, which has been on the balance sheet of the department of education and science of the Irpen city council since 1978 but geographically located in Bucha. As a result of the illegal actions of Buchan officials and the registrar, the institution was transferred to the balance of the city and now children studying in this training and production complex might find themselves ordered to leave the premises at any moment. As expected, the Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky prosecutor’s office is not investigating the case.

4. Assassination. Another confirmation of the fact that “money doesn’t stink” for Yuri Dmitrun can be a story that happened on the outskirts of Kyiv in August 2019. Near the construction hypermarket “Epicenter”, in broad daylight, an entrepreneur was shot in front of passers-by. The victim miraculously survived, although he was shot 9 times. The crime was solved quickly. The identities of the attackers are established, but they still walk free. After all, prosecutor Dmitrun, for $ 50 thousand, “did not notice” any attempted murder. It looks like friends had an argument and simply sorted out the relationship by planting nine bullets in the opponent. Nothing is surprising about that.

The prosecutor's office holds the whole region hostage

Special attention should be paid to the Obukhiv district of the Kyiv region where the crime rate has increased significantly over the past few years. Cases of drug trafficking, illegal sand mining, and pimping are rooted deeply in the district these days.

All this is known in the local prosecutor’s office and it seems that criminal proceedings are being opened, but at the same time the materials do not reach the court. Local residents are in fear and under pressure from the same prosecutor's office.

This is due to the fact that the right hand of Yuri Dmitrun and the direct head of the Obukhov department of the prosecutor’s office, Dmitry Zhitnik, is in charge of this criminal chain. He is the one in charge of all the activities that take place in the Obukhov district (even though Yury Dmitrun completely controls these lands, Dmitry Zhitnik has the “right to vote” in the Obukhov district). In fact, he is the overseer, but, of course, with the financial participation of Dmitrun.

The activity of Zhitnik was repeatedly recognized as unsatisfactory by the decisions of the Obukhov district council. The findings were sent both to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the head of the local prosecutor's office, whose powers include his dismissal. But Dmitrun found leverage for Zhitnik to continue to work in his post as, otherwise, a mutually beneficial financial scheme could be violated.

Within the boundaries of its district, Zhitnik organizes grand criminal schemes which are also worth listing:

• As you already understood, one of the main sources of income for the prosecutors is the “protection” of illegal sand production in the district. The scheme is the same for everyone - you need to pay 40% of the cost of a ton of sand. Zhitnik allegedly fights against these criminal schemes and even opens criminal proceedings, but does everything so that they do not go to court. With the enterprises that refuse to cooperate with him and pay kickbacks, or sell shares to the figureheads for nothing, the district prosecutor deals with the help of contracted takeovers involving law enforcement officials. After that, in order to stop the work, they seize their equipment, which is afterwards destroyed under strange circumstances. For instance, a criminal case concerning allegedly illegal extraction of sand was opened against a local entrepreneur Koshirenkov back in 2016. The process for the removal of equipment was personally led by Zhitnik. The confiscated loader burned down that night at the penalty area.

• Zhitnik, together with his subordinate prosecutors, in criminal proceedings on the fact of taking possession of the lands of PJSC “Obukhovskoye”, in which they exercised procedural management, by putting pressure on the heads of local governments, were able to get the expensive land plots for free.

In the end, it is clear that the head of the Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky local prosecutor’s office Yuri Dmitrun and the head of the Obukhov department of the prosecutor’s office Dmitry Zhitnik are using their official positions to carry out joint corruption criminal activities with the aim of illegal enrichment. And I’m sure that they both have become dollar millionaires over these years.

Therefore, with the departure of the lousy General Prosecutor  Ryaboshapka, these "kings" should get what they deserve - exactly what ordinary citizens have long been asking for.