"Titushky", deputy "roof" and explosions: how the "Stolychnyi" market was raided

"The Stolychnyi Market is resuming operations within the law" - this quote from the so-called director of Ukraine’s largest food market, Serhiy Holovnya, was spread throughout the Ukrainian media today, May 24, in the context of yet another story of corporate raiding around the enterprise.

However, none of the journalists mentioned that "working within the law" in Mr. Holovnya’s view consists of the invasion of the enterprise’s territory by almost a hundred armed "titushki", damage to the enterprise’s property and other "bonuses" of a typical raider takeover, writes " Obozrevatel ".

The authors of the publications whitewashing the raiders also did not point out that "Director" Holovnya had never been seen in person at Stolichny. And the conflict between the market shareholders is still being resolved in the courts.

However, it seems that the minority shareholders of the enterprise are tired of waiting for the results of the court, or they are simply not sure that Themis will take their side - therefore, at Stolychnyi, a real "masked show" began at dawn.

What happened at the country’s main agricultural market, who is behind the raiders, and why there is such a fierce war for the enterprise - read on.

Around 6 a.m., the largest agricultural market in Ukraine, Stolychnyi, was visited by uninvited "guests": about 70 strong guys burst into the market and tried to seize two pavilions.

"Today there was an attempt to raid two pavilions - "Vegetables-Fruits" and "Meat-Fish" by raiders who broke into the market territory with grinders and the help of "titushki" early in the morning and seized the premises. They damaged property, set fires, knocked down doors... Explosions were even heard," says Dmytro Dolhushevskyi, deputy director of the market for work with tenants.

At the time of the raider takeover, the Stolychnyi workers were not yet at work – their working day starts later. And the tenants – farmers who sell their products at the market – were just starting to arrive. Therefore, fortunately, only the property of the enterprise was damaged – there is no information yet about the wounded and injured people. Although those who saw with their own eyes how the “work within the legal framework” began were certainly very alarmed.

For several hours, the National Police of Ukraine and explosive experts worked at the scene. Due to investigative actions, description of damage to property by raiders and the danger of explosion, access to the pavilions that became the raiders’ target was blocked all this time. And work in them was suspended.

"There was an attempt at a raider takeover of the legal tenant, OOO Prodovolchyi Hub Stolychnyi. He works in the pavilion under a contract that is still in effect. No one broke it or challenged it. There were no reports on this matter," Dolhushevskyi claims.

Representatives of the administration, despite the long-running litigation between the shareholders of Stolychnyi and previous precedents with legal attempts to "trade" the market by minority shareholders, still did not expect such a brazen attack.

And even more so, they did not expect that the raider takeover would be accompanied (and perhaps even led) by the Kyiv City Council deputy from Batkivshchyna, Vitaliy Nestor.

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"I was not there when the titushki invaded. I did not see who was leading them. But when I arrived at the scene, when we called the police, there were people who called themselves representatives of the company "Oilsi" (a company that has repeatedly figured in attempts to raid the Stolychnyi market and is associated with our "opponents"). There was also a certain Kiryushyn, who claimed to be a representative of the Stolychnyi market. There were some other people. There was also a private enforcer Potapchenko. And there were also two representatives of "Batkivshchyna" with them. One of them was the deputy of the Kyiv City Council Vitaliy Nestor. I got the impression that all these people reported to him. And it was he who greatly interfered with the police work. In particular, when the police tried to detain the titushki or at least establish their identities," Dolhushevskyi claims.

It was deputy Nestor who actively intervened when the police demanded that the "titushki" show their ID cards. Together with another person (according to our information, he may also be a member of the "Batkivshchyna" party), Nestor also prevented the law enforcement officers from detaining the attackers.

Even Tymoshenko’s ally, former mayoral candidate Oleksiy Kucherenko, was "spotted" at the scene. According to eyewitnesses, he tried to put pressure on law enforcement officers.

Presumably, this ‘activity’ of the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc can be explained by the connection of minority shareholders, in particular, the founders of the Stolytsia Group company, with this political force.

‘This is a raider scheme of Stolytsia Group, which is trying to establish control over the company and its real estate by any means. And the delusional statements by Holovnya, which are so actively and synchronously relayed in the media, are part of this scheme,’ he adds.

At the same time, it remains unclear what formal grounds the raiders have chosen to seize the company.

According to representatives of the market’s administration, no one has ever seen Serhiy Holovnya, who now calls himself the real director of the market, at the enterprise. And the court decision that allegedly reinstated him as the head of Stolychnyi is currently being appealed in the Kyiv Court of Appeal, which has suspended the decision of the first instance court. Therefore, the ‘return of the legitimate director’ is unlikely to be the reason for the events.

However, while few people knew about Serhiy Holovnya, the ‘director’ of Stolychnyi, until now, the media has a lot of interesting information about Serhiy Holovnya, who has long been closely associated with the company’s minority shareholders. In particular, he was accused of threats by Chernihiv blogger Ihor Stakh, who looked behind the scenes of local politics, and in particular, the Batkivshchyna party. In addition, Holovnya had already appeared on a video of the raider seizure of the Magellan shopping centre.

The presence of private enforcement officer Potapchenko on the market seems to be incomprehensible, even illegal.

‘Potapchenko convinced us that he was carrying out some enforcement actions. But as of today, there are no enforcement proceedings in the Unified Automated Register of Enforcement Proceedings that would include OILSY or the property of Stolychnyi Market. Moreover, at the request of the minority shareholder, the bankruptcy proceedings against the market are still ongoing, so any enforcement actions are illegal by default,’ explains Dolhushevskyi.

He assures us that the real administration of the market will continue to defend its rights and the company, and will act strictly within the law.

As a reminder, the conflict between Stolychnyi market shareholders Oleksandr Stelmakh and Vlada Molchanova has been going on for several months. The minority shareholder is trying to gain control of the company both through the courts and by implementing traditional raider schemes with ‘decisions’ of small town courts, interference with property registers, the use of ‘black notaries’ and a series of agreements on the sale or lease of market property, which are transferred by these ‘notaries’ to a company controlled by the raiders.

So far, all these attempts have been unsuccessful, as each time the ‘anti-raider commission’ at the Ministry of Justice intervened and cancelled the illegal changes to the state registers. Because of this, the raiders even resorted to putting pressure on Justice Minister Denys Malyuska: activists allegedly from the Right Sector came to the Ministry’s building demanding that the market be actually given to the raiders. Once, they even came to Malyuska’s house and made a mess of it, frightening both the minister’s family and his neighbours.

At the same time, a lawsuit was filed by minority shareholders to declare Stolychnyi bankrupt - despite the fact that after the dismissal of its proteges and the arrival of a new administration, the company finally began to get out of the debt hole and earn money that was no longer being transferred from the market to the accounts of ‘their’ companies for allegedly rendered services. As a result, in the first year after the administration controlled by minority shareholders was removed, the market’s profits increased by a quarter, while expenses decreased by about the same amount. Operating profit increased by more than 6 times!

At present, the Vegetables and Fruits pavilion, which raiders tried to seize on 24 May, has become a separate ‘bone of contention’. It was claimed by Spetsbud-Monolit, a company close to the minority shareholders, as a repayment of the debt of about UAH 10 million already paid to Stolychnyi market. Due to the interference of unscrupulous state registrars, this company briefly became the ‘owner’ of the pavilion in the state register of property rights - and immediately ‘sold’ this object to Oilsi. Although these changes in the register were cancelled by the Ministry of Justice, Olsi considers itself the rightful owner of the pavilion built at the expense of Stolychnyi, with a market value of over UAH 300 million.

Now the confrontation around Stolychnyi continues. And what forms it may take tomorrow - today no one knows. Except, perhaps, the raiders themselves, who want to take over the enterprise at any cost.