State sells iconic Kyiv hotel to Ukrainian businessman for double starting price

Kyiv’s iconic “Hotel Ukraina,” located on the city’s central Independence Square, also known as Maidan Nezalezhnosti, was sold in an auction for Hr 2.5 billion ($60 million) after being state-owned since 1961, Ukraine's State Property Fund said.

The sale marks one of the country's largest privatizations of state-owned property in recent years.

The auction’s winner was Ukrainian businessman Maksym Krippa — who bid over double the starting price of Hr 1.05 billion ($25.3 million), according to results on Prozorro.Sale, an online auction system in Ukraine.

While Krippa has maintained a relatively low profile throughout his career — built largely on gambling, entertainment, and IT — this is his second high-ticket purchase over the last year. In 2023, he purchased the Parus skyscraper in downtown Kyiv.

The auction was part of Ukraine’s “Great Privatization” drive to sell off large state-owned assets, which was suspended after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The State Property Fund announced it would restart the initiative this September.

Vitaly Koval, the head of the State Property Fund, said in early 2024 that Hotel Ukraina is heavily under-booked due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and over $1 million in debt.

Koval said in April that the fund does "not see any prospects for state-owned hotels, private businesses will provide these services much better and much more efficiently."

"The funds that will be raised from the privatization of hotels will be used to strengthen our defense capabilities. We must think about efficiency."

Due to its location on a hilltop overlooking Kyiv's Independence Square, Hotel Ukraina was a fixture in photographs and television reports from one of the most internationally covered events about before Russia launched its war, the 2013-14 EuroMaidan Revolution.

The hotel stands along a road leading down to the main square from where police snipers controlled by the regime of then-president Viktor Yanukovych, who days later fled to Russia, fired upon and killed dozens of protesters.

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The Kyiv IndependentJakub Parusinski