Ukrainian media defy court ban, publish forbidden report on top official's brother

Several Ukrainian media outlets on July 17 defied a court ban by publishing an investigative report on the brother of Oleksiy Sukhachov, head of the State Investigation Bureau.

According to the report, Oleksiy Sukhachov’s brother Oleksandr has bought 143 apartments at a price far below their market value, with each apartment being sold at the price of a smartphone. The construction of the apartment buildings involved has been investigated by Oleksiy Sukhachov’s State Investigation Bureau, raising questions about a potential conflict of interest.

The bureau denied the accusations of wrongdoing.

On July 6, a Ukrainian court banned the Anti-Corruption Action Center, the media outlet Slidstvo.info and journalist Alina Stryzhak from publishing the investigative report.

But Maksym Savchuk, a journalist at Slidstvo.info and a co-author of the investigation, said on July 17 that he had not been banned from publishing the report. He added that he had sent the investigation to other media outlets for publication.

“The (court) order does not apply to me — and I co-authored the investigation,” he wrote on Facebook. “So I have both the moral and legal right to share the text, which Alina and I worked on together, with other media outlets.”

The report was published by Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Ukrainska Pravda, Hromadske, Toronto TV, Suspilne, Mezha.net, Bihus.info, NV.ua, Graty, and NGL.media.

From 2018 to 2020, Oleksandr Sukhachov, a businessman, acquired 143 apartments in Kharkiv, although he does not own most of them now, according to the investigation.

He bought the apartments at book value, far below market prices, the media outlets reported.

In 2018 Sukhachov bought 30 apartments for a total of Hr 1 million ($39,300 at the 2018 exchange rate) at prices ranging from Hr 24,600 to Hr 48,900 per apartment ($932 to $1,856).

The same year, he also purchased another 28 apartments for a total of $33,000.

The apartments were sold by Parkovy-2, a company owned by lawyer Ivan Kozikov at the time. Currently the same housing project is owned by real estate developer Stroy City.

The Kyiv Independent has requested comment from Stroy City and will publish its response once it is received.

In 2021 the police investigated allegations that the buildings in which Sukhachov bought the apartments had been built illegally.

According to Ukraine's court registry, in 2021 the police also found company seals belonging to Oleksandr Sukhachov during searches at Stroy City offices.

In 2022 the case was transferred from the police to the State Investigation Bureau. No one has been charged in the case.

Later the case was sent back to the police and closed, and then resumed again.

The State Investigation Bureau told the Kyiv Independent that it "does not comment on matters related to the private business activities of individuals who are not employees of the bureau."

The bureau also said that "it did not decide to close the investigation" into the apartment buildings.

"Under Ukraine's Criminal Procedure Code, determining which law enforcement agency has jurisdiction over a criminal case falls within the prosecutor's authority," the bureau said, adding that the Prosecutor General's Office transferred the case to the police in 2025.

The bureau also argued that "family ties alone do not provide grounds to conclude that they influenced the course of the pretrial investigation or any procedural decisions."

The court order banning the investigation was issued by Serhiy Vovk, a judge at Kyiv's Pechersk District Court, after Parkovy-2 filed a motion with the court. It is a pretrial injunction issued before a lawsuit is filed.

According to the ruling, the plaintiff intends to file a lawsuit seeking to bar the Anti-Corruption Action Center and Slidstvo.info from collecting any information about either Parkovy-2 or Oleksandr Sukhachov.

Parkovy-2 claimed that the publication of the investigative report would cause significant damage to the company.

Although courts have previously upheld libel lawsuits against Ukrainian media, a ban on an investigative report before publication appears to be unprecedented.

"The court ruling is manifestly unlawful and violates the fundamental rights of journalists and the public to gather and disseminate information of public interest that is publicly available about the country's highest-ranking officials," Olena Shcherban, a deputy executive director at the Anti-Corruption Action Center, said.

Vovk, the judge who issued the ruling banning the investigative report, has been embroiled in numerous controversies and repeatedly accused of violating ethical and integrity standards. He denies the allegations.

The Pechersk District Court also denied the accusations of wrongdoing.

Oleksiy Sukhachov, whose brother was the subject of the investigation, is also highly controversial.

Since its creation in 2016, the State Investigation Bureau has faced the accusations of being a political tool of the President's Office. Sukhachov was appointed as the bureau's head in 2022 as a result of a non-transparent contest that anti-corruption activists described as fake and politicized.