Will IDPs be evicted from the Vlasta Hotel in Lviv?
Lviv hotel “Vlasta”, previously owned by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, sold at auction for UAH 115 million. Local activists are surprised that the market value of the 12-story complex was not assessed in advance. In addition, the families of military personnel and internally displaced persons who have been living in a hotel since the beginning of the full-scale invasion may remain on the street.
This was reported by the representative of the SBI “Stop corruption» in Lviv Victor Palace.
“How did the tender pass without an expert assessment of the property? After all, the market value of the huge complex, which belonged to the state, has not been established. How to understand if the budget has lost millions of hryvnias?” the activist wonders.
According to the public, the auction has signs of corruption. After all, the hotel was put up for auction for only 7 million UAH – a meager price for a huge complex almost in the center of Lviv.
“Vlasta” is a two-star hotel in Lviv (full name is the State Enterprise of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Hotel “Vlasta”), located one kilometer from the historical part of the city, in front of the SKA stadium, at the address: st. Kleparovskaya, 30. The 12-storey building of the hotel has a total area of 8174.7 square meters, the hotel occupies 9 floors and 157 rooms for 289 people.
Volodymyr Senyshak, head of the Vlasta hotel, told StopKor that today 90 families of servicemen and internally displaced persons from the East of Ukraine live in the hotel for a long time.
Previously, the hotel was owned by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. In December 2021, the State Unified Property Complex State Enterprise Hotel Vlasta was transferred by order of the Ministry to the State Property Fund of Ukraine and began to be prepared for sale.
“The State Property Fund conducted an inventory and audit of the hotel complex. But there was no act of acceptance and transfer from the MOU to the SPFU,” says the head of the hotel.
Hotel “Vlasta” in Lviv previously belonged to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
It is interesting that in the state register “Vlasta” is still listed under the Ministry of Defense.
As it became known to Lvov journalists, the First Medical Association of Lvov wanted to buy out the hotel complex. According to the director of the First TMO Oleg Samchuk, there are hundreds of patients from other regions in Lviv who need housing for the duration of treatment. It is not yet possible to place these people in the hospital due to the large number of critical patients in need of immediate rescue. Executive Committee of the Lviv City Council January 20 deemed appropriate participation of the First Territorial Medical Association in the auction for the sale of the hotel “Vlasta”.
Bidding took place on January 23 through the electronic system Prozorro.Sales. 23 participants took part in the auction. The Kyiv company “Magnus Trading Ukraine” was declared the winner. The winner bid more than Lviv bidders 10 seconds before the end of the auction, Lviv residents say.
Interestingly, the new owner of Vlast has nothing to do with the hotel business. By YouControl data, the company was registered in 2019 in Kyiv and is engaged in mediation in the trade of agricultural raw materials, live animals, textile raw materials and semi-finished products. The sole owner of the company with an authorized capital of UAH 10,000 is Oleg Didenko, who until June 2022 was an adviser to the chairman of the board of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine. And in July 2022, he became the founder of Magnus Trading Ukraine. In 2014-2020 Didenko was the director of the Gaz Ukrainy DC (a subsidiary of NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy).
Magnus Trading Ukraine is 100% owned by former adviser to NJSC Naftogaz Oleg Didenko
Lviv activists are worried: will a new corruption “multi-move” be used to resell the hotel to Lviv entrepreneurs? In addition, the public has already launched an investigation into the terms of the sale of the hotel.
“There is a lawyer from the public who is already making inquiries and will receive official documents as to why the tender went through without an expert assessment of the property“, – says the representative of “Stop Corruption” Viktor Palace.
In the meantime, the families of military personnel and migrants who have been living in a hotel for a long time are very nervous. If the hotel has become private, the new owner can put them on the street at any time. Many of them have nowhere to return – their homes have been destroyed to the ground.
Families from the East live in the Lviv hotel “Vlasta”, who have nowhere to return
“Today the hotel is operating normally. We have an internal directive that all the workers and staff of the hotel remain working for another 6 months after privatization. As for the people who live here, there are no official orders.“, – explains the director of the hotel Vladimir Senishak.
He noted that due to concern about the fate of the residents, he turned to the local representative office of the State Property Fund of Ukraine. There he was informed that the new owner had promised not to evict anyone until the end of martial law. However, there are no official guarantees of this yet.
Dmitry Slobodyanik