Maxim Melnichuk. Who is he, the new governor-major of the Kiev region

On February 3, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appointed a new governor of the Kyiv region, Maxim Melnichuk. This name is little known to the general public, but is well known to experienced politicians and business owners. During the last local elections, he was a candidate for mayor of Kyiv from the Agrarian Party of Ukraine. In addition, he is the current vice-president of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine. Until his appointment as head of the Kyiv Regional State Administration, the highest post he held was the position of Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy in the government of Mykola Azarov. All of this is listed in his official biography and looks pretty decent, but what is more important is what is not stated in it.

“In the footsteps of my father”

“Tell me who your father is, and I will tell you who you are.” In order to understand who Maxim Melnichuk is, it is necessary to study his family tree. His father Dmitry Melnichuk single-handedly headed the National University of Bioresources and Environmental Management of Ukraine (NUBIP) for thirty years. This university is one of the largest and richest in our country. Melnichuk Sr. was personally acquainted with all the presidents of Ukraine and both Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yanukovych took his opinion into account. The reason for this is simple – Dmitry Alekseevich always generously shared what he managed to steal with the help of his position. That’s why no one touched him. For the time being.

For such “dedication” he received many state awards from the presidents of Ukraine and other high-ranking officials of various convocations. Over the 30 years of leading the university, Melnichuk Sr. “dragged” almost his entire family to the university, starting with his sons Sergei and Maxim, and ending with second cousins.

His youngest son Maxim Melnichuk was vice-rector for scientific, innovative and international activities, and Sergei Melnichuk headed the educational and scientific institute for the quality of biological resources and life safety. Their mother and about thirty other relatives worked at the university and probably began to consider it their property. But the times of the rector of Melnichuk Sr. came to an end, and this is where problems began, the echoes of which are still heard. To this day, law enforcement agencies are investigating several dozen criminal proceedings related to criminal and corrupt actions of the former leadership of NUBIP. There is reason to believe that the former rector and his family caused colossal losses to the state amounting to several hundred million (or even billions) of hryvnia.

“Melnichuk Jr.’s Path”

The fate of Maxim Melnichuk was very successful. He was born in 1973 in Kyiv. He received his higher education at the Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 1994. For the next three years, he was a graduate student in the Faculty of Biology at the same university, where he later worked at the Department of Virology. The turning point in his life came in 1998 with his arrival at NUBIP University, where his father was rector. There he very quickly made a dizzying scientific career for himself. In April 2003, Melnichuk Jr. was elected dean of the faculty of plant protection and biotechnology. A year later, he headed the chemical substances safety department in the Ministry of Environment, immediately receiving the fifth rank of civil servant.

In 2007, as a doctor of science, Maxim Melnichuk received a post as a lecturer in the department of ecobiotechnologies and biodiversity at the same university of his father. In the same year, by a “formal” vote, he was elected vice-rector of NUBIP for scientific work. In May 2010, with the active assistance of Melnichuk Sr., he was appointed Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine. But he did not stay in this position for long and a year later he returned to NUBIP, however, already as director of the Research Institute of Plant Growing, Ecology and Biotechnology. Later he returned to the position of vice-rector and became an academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Moreover, since 2014, he was officially appointed to the position of vice-president of the agrarian department of the NAS.

In 2010, Ukrainian media published the results of an audit conducted at NUBIP by a special control and audit commission. A financial and economic audit revealed huge financial abuses totaling more than UAH 100 million at the university and its structural divisions. In particular, it was established that, on the personal instructions of the rector Dmitry Melnichuk, most of these divisions were not transferred to treasury services, and the income received from them was not taken into account in the general estimate and mainly ended up in the pockets of the “Melnichuk family” through a network of private companies of the rector’s sons Sergei and Maxim. The total amount of losses incurred by the state turned out to be colossal – almost 80 million UAH. In addition, the audit showed that as a result of the criminal actions of the Melnichukov family, the university lost about 400 hectares of land (most of which is located in the Kyiv region) that belonged to the university. According to information from the control and audit department, Melnichuk Sr. deliberately did not draw up state documents necessary to fix the right to permanent use of land plots registered in the structural divisions of NUBIP. If the acts had been officially formalized, the Melnychuks simply would not have been able to sell off the university’s lands with impunity. And so – please. It should also be added that Maxim Melnichuk personally controlled the privatization of the lands of the Mukachevo Agrarian College, as well as the alienation of a land plot of 14 hectares in Crimea near Foros. The official reasons were then called “violation of land legislation,” but according to sources, the Melnychuks received an impressive amount for the transfer of these lands. In addition, companies owned by Maxim Dmitrievich were engaged in withdrawing funds received from the sale of land abroad.

“Agrarian fraud” of the Melnichuk family

Around the same time, it became known that Maxim Melnychuk, on behalf of his father, placed UAH 20 million of budget funds belonging to NUBIP into the accounts of Tavrika Bank and Alfa-Bank. This money was intended to resolve issues related to the improvement of the university, however, no one has seen it since then.

In the fall of 2013, there was a fire at the university that almost completely destroyed 2 floors where archives with documents were located. Experts say that it was arson, and it was initiated by the top management of the university in order to hide traces of the crimes committed. By the way, it “coincidentally” happened that the inspection was supposed to come to them. Indescribable luck, isn’t it?

All these machinations of the Melnichuk family allowed them to earn colossal money and become one of the “elite of Ukraine.” For example, Maxim Melnichuk and his own family already own 4 apartments in Kyiv and a small estate in the Kiev-Svyatoshinsky district. In addition, he owns a winter residence in the Alps and a small house in the USA.

Recently, Maxim Dmitrievich has been actively working on his reputation, both in scientific and political circles. Despite this, behind his back he is often called a “scientific major,” whose knowledge his father bought for him. Needless to say, Melnichuk has enormous ambitions; a couple of months ago he was defeated in the local elections, being a candidate for mayor of Kyiv from the Agrarian Party, and now stands on a par with the mayor of Kyiv Vitaliy Klitschko, holding the post of governor of the entire region.

Propaganda video by Maxim Melnichuk for the 2015 Kyiv mayoral elections

“Influential Patrons”

Maxim Melnichuk is the leader of the Kyiv wing of the Agrarian Party, which in the last elections, unexpectedly for everyone, got into the top 5 parties from which deputies and village heads were elected to city and village councils. So, one of the main sponsors of the party is the former deputy head of the APU, and part-time owner of the Mironovsky Hliboproduct holding, Yuriy Kosyuk (Read more about Yuri Kosyuk at the link). Rumor has it that it was he who in 2010 contributed to the appointment of Melnichuk the Younger to the post of Deputy Minister of Agricultural Policy in the government of Mykola Azarov.

At one time, Kosyuk also lobbied other “promising” officials. For example, during Yushchenko’s presidency, he controlled the Minister of Agrarian Policy Yuri Melnik, who was appointed to this position through a Communist Party quota. It is noteworthy that Melnik is now the executive director of Kosyuk’s corporation “Mironovsky Hliboproduct”, and he is also the son-in-law of one of the “ideological inspirers” and sponsors of the “Agrarian Party”, Mikhail Zubets. This is nepotism.

Another patron of the new head of the Kyiv Regional State Administration is one of the members of Vitali Klitschko’s team, Vadim Stolar (Read more about Vadim Stolar at the link). It is not yet clear how he is connected with him, but on the sidelines they say that without his patronage this appointment would not have taken place. They even say that now not a single personnel appointment takes place without his consent. One of the sources in the Petro Poroshenko Bloc called him the “coach” Vitali Klitschko needs so much. His importance in the party is evidenced by the fact that it was he who led the negotiations, as a result of which the BPP and UDAR united.

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Maxim Melnichuk, of course, has extensive experience in the field of theft of state lands. True, previously his actions were limited only to lands controlled by NUBIP. Now, in fact, the entire Kyiv region was given to him. Seeing such personnel decisions from Poroshenko’s team, the question arises: “Has our president gone crazy?” If everything continues in the same vein, then it is very likely that the next president of Ukraine will no longer have anything to govern. Except for the impoverished people, of course.

PS: Last year, journalists found out that the presidential company Roshen wants to build a biscuit complex near Boryspil in the Kyiv region. To do this, she needs about 20 hectares of land, which they cannot obtain due to the Land Code of Ukraine. Nevertheless, the corporation persistently fights for them. In January, its representative even came to Boryspil, promising local residents “manna from heaven,” but to no avail. It seems that the ex-governor of the Kyiv region Vladimir Shandra “struck a pose” by refusing to help, and he had to leave his post. Now, instead of him, Maxim Melnichuk has appeared, who is not nearly as principled as Shandra, and is quite ready to sell his reputation for big money. So, as they say

To be continued…

Dmitry Samofalov, for Skelet.Info

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