Popular Kyiv mall on lockdown as management dispute continues
One of Kyiv’s most popular malls has been shut down for four days amid a long-standing fight over the building's management, forcing hundreds of local and international businesses to temporarily close their doors.
The shutdown is the latest chapter in a dispute over the mall’s management. State-owned banks Oschadbank and Ukreximbank — the legal owners of the Gulliver complex in downtown Kyiv — temporarily closed the mall on Oct. 31, citing a sewage problem that they blamed on the complex's management.
That morning, armed guards were seen outside the mall, and some tenants were allowed into the building, but just to collect their personal belongings, Oschadbank said.
Oschadbank and Ukreximbank claim the former management, Three O, is dangerously sabotaging the handover process to stop the banks from taking full control over the building’s management.
Three O, linked to sanctioned oligarch Viktor Polishchuk, has refuted the banks’ claims and accused them of harming the mall's businesses with the shutdown, turning the whole standoff into a blame game.
The banks took over ownership of the towering skyscraper in downtown Kyiv on July 26, after Three O stopped paying its loan obligations. A court ruled that Gulliver, including its equipment and land, belonged to the banks as it was put up as collateral for the loans. The company owes a staggering $537.2 million in debt to Oschadbank and $137.8 million to Ukreximbank, according to Forbes Ukraine.
Gulliver isn’t the first mall where the state has taken over management. In 2023, Ukraine’s State Property Fund assumed management of the formerly Russian-owned Ocean Plaza with the intent of privatizing it. But over two years later, the privatization is dragging on, hindered by financial and legal entanglements and a Hr 9 billion debt ($214 million).
In the case of Gulliver, Oschadbank says that Three O's security guards have refused to give the bank's employees access to the building's technical infrastructure and utility systems, Oschadbank's press service told the Kyiv Independent in a written statement.
The final straw for the banks came on Oct. 29, when sewage water started flowing into a shop but the bank was unable to access the sewage network in the building.
By the morning of Oct. 31, armed guards blocked entry to the building, "to protect visitors and tenant representatives and to prevent accidents or man-made hazards that could result from the former owner’s actions," Oschadbank’s press service said.
"The temporary closure of the center is the first step toward putting an end to the former owner's sabotage. This measure will allow us to regain full access to all technical premises of the facility," the bank said.
Three O has fought back against Oschadbank’s claims, saying there are "no technical reasons" for closing the building. "All employees of the Three O team are at their posts, our presence guarantees the safe operation of the facility," the company wrote in a public statement on Oct. 31.
Gulliver is home to some 50 offices in its business wing, including tech-unicorn Grammarly, and 250 stores in its shopping center, from Adidas to Ukrainian grocery store Silpo. Oschadbank hasn’t said how long the shutdown will last for but noted that businesses wouldn’t have to pay rent during that period.
Days after the banks legally took ownership of Gulliver this July, Oschadbank accused Three O of failing to sign the paperwork for the transfer and dissuading tenants from signing new lease agreements with the banks. The bank says leases under Three O are no longer valid and the new management has so far renegotiated a "significant portion" of leases with tenants.
Three O says the shutdown is depriving the businesses of their earnings, dealing a hefty blow to the dozens of smaller businesses that depend on Gulliver. Already, the company claims tenants are moving out, leaving behind empty retail and office spaces, which subsequently lowers Gulliver’s market value.
"Will businesses want to continue investing and working where state decisions have destroyed trust in institutions and jeopardized elementary predictability in the market? The answer to this question is obvious," Three O wrote in its public statement.
Tensions over the building exploded in March 2023 when Ukraine’s Economic Security Bureau launched an investigation into Three O over tax avoidance amounting to 146 million ($3.5 million.) The bureau impounded the building, citing it as evidence in its investigation, before handing the management over to the Agency for Search and Asset Management (ARMA) in June 2024.
Gulliver’s management condemned the bureau’s decision, calling the move a "business seizure" and a gross violation of procedural and substantive law.
The investigation is still ongoing, the bureau’s press service told the Kyiv Independent.
ARMA then launched a tender for the Hr 7.6 billion ($180 million) building. One interested party was believed to be Maksym Krippa, a notoriously private businessman who has purchased swathes of prime Kyiv real estate in recent years, including the Parus business center next to Gulliver, Ukrainian media Censor reported.
Krippa’s charitable foundation told Censor in September 2025 that the entrepreneur had no interest in purchasing Gulliver. "It is not an attractive, promising or notable property" the MK Foundation said.
After Three O failed to pay its loan obligations for nearly a year, the banks took possession of Gulliver in July this year. Then, ARMA lifted the seizure and cancelled the tender as the complex now belonged to the banks rather than Three O.
Oschadbank says there are no plans to sell the building for now.
Luca Léry Moffat
