The "official" owners of successful woodworking enterprises in Volyn are likely to be front men. In reality, the billions in profits generated by Volma and Brenvel may be going to the family of former State Forestry Agency head Khristina Yushkevich and her former advisor, now common-law husband, Andriy Tyschenko.
These connections were investigated by the Center for Investigative Journalism "The Power of Truth."
An incredibly profitable asset and its incredibly modest "owner"
Brenvel specializes in the production and export of solid biofuel and wood processing. The company also manufactures pallets, for which it has even received an award from customs. The company also supplies heat to educational and medical institutions, and is a monopoly in two regions.
The company's annual turnover during the full-scale war exceeded UAH 1 billion. The Power of Truth estimates the business's net profits at UAH 50 million per year.
However, the living conditions of Natalia Kozak, who has officially owned the company for at least the last ten years, do not correspond to the status of a businesswoman with a multimillion-dollar income. The woman lives in a Kyiv apartment block and uses public transport.
Journalists from the Center tried to talk to the woman about this discrepancy.
– You are the owner of a large, successful company, but you live on the outskirts of Kyiv... Are you the real owner of “Brenvel”? – And what does it matter? Girl... I’m in a hurry to see a doctor. That’s your problem.
For “Brenvel”, Nataliya Kozak exists only in official registries – there is no mention of her on the company’s web resources, and the workers do not know her. The same goes for the “official” director. The documents name Serhiy Androsyuk from Kovel as the director.
Twin company
The situation with the second company, Volma, is almost identical. It is registered in the same place as Brenvel. It operates in a similar field. However, its financial indicators are slightly lower – annual turnover of 150-300 million hryvnia and net profit of 5-10 million hryvnia.
Natalia Baglyk from Kovel "owns" this successful company. The profits from the business have had no impact on her standard of living. Like Natalia Kozak, she lives in an ordinary apartment building. She also has a car, albeit a 14-year-old Opel.
When communicating with journalists, the woman was even more abrupt and even threatened to call the police.
"Listen, do you have a brain or not? What do you want? I am not involved in the company's activities. Is that clear or not?" This is how Natalia Baglyk communicated her connection with Volma.
The official director of Volma is Oleksandr Kinder, and previously it was Serhiy Androsyuk. The same person who is now listed as the director of Brenvel.
Criminal relationship
Both companies have featured in a number of criminal proceedings opened during 2021–2024. According to the investigation, the state lost more than $900,000 every month through timber-related fraud schemes.
The scheme worked as follows: officials from Volyn and other regional forestry administrations sold timber to affiliated companies through contracts. They did this without auctions and at artificially low prices. Thereafter, the timber was also exported abroad, evading taxes.
"Brenvel" supplied products to the company "Retim Europe". The company claims to be from Estonia, but it is officially owned by Kyiv resident Yulia Bublyk, has a branch in Kyiv, and operates production facilities in western and northern Ukraine. Curiously, the assortment of "Retim" consists of the same pallets and pellets as "Brenvel", and according to photos from the website, they share identical production capacities.
Whose enterprises are these?
The land under the workshops of "Volma" and "Brenvel" is leased, and not from the Kovel community, but from Andriy Tyshchenko, who lives in Kyiv. This is not the only thing that connects this man to the forestry sector.
Tyshchenko was an advisor to the Head of the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine, Khrystyna Yushkevych, during 2016–2017. She has since stepped away from the public eye, but continues to share posts from "Brenvel" on her social media. There's another fact – Andriy Tyshchenko and Khrystyna Yushkevych are a couple and raise seven children together.
Law enforcement officers have already conducted searches at their house in the capital. This took place within the framework of the aforementioned proceedings. Among other things, they found 21 gold bars.
However, law enforcement officers did not bring any harm to the happy family. As a result of the whole case, only the former director of "Brenvel", Anatoliy Shpak, received a sentence.
Yushkevich and Tishchenko's interests in Volyn
Khristina Yushkevich worked at the State Forestry Agency for about two years. She joined in 2015 as an assistant to the head, and in 2017 she left as the head of the agency. Incidentally, she left together with Andriy Tishchenko.
The couple chose Kovel for their "business." In 2019, Yushkevich headed the company "Kleven," and Tishchenko headed "ETK Volyn," registered on the same street. At one time, the company was headed by Yulia Bulik, who is now the "owner" of "Retim Europe."
In 2021, Yushkevich became one of the founders of Volyn-Ecotep. In 2022, Tishchenko founded Kona Invest, which has the same registered address as Brenvel and Volma. Incidentally, the contact number for Kona Invest is the phone number of Khristina Yushkevich. For some reason, when journalists asked her about this, she hung up the phone.
Source: sylapravdy.com
"Syla pravdy" notes that law enforcement officers refer to Andriy Tyshchenko as "the curator of the forestry sector of western and northern Ukraine." However, as investigators suggest, the family's rise as successful timber market entrepreneurs happened "through the assistance" of Oleksandr Kvartyrko, who headed the Polissya Forest Office after the reform.
It was precisely during his leadership that woodworking companies privatized the complexes of Kovel, Horodok, and Kamin-Kashyrskyi forestry enterprises. Law enforcement suspects that Kvartyrka facilitated this privatization in some way.
"From June to July 2023, the director of the Polissya Forest Office of SE 'Forests of Ukraine' PERSON_5, abusing his official position, facilitated the privatization of a group of inventory objects of SE 'Forests of Ukraine', which were used for the storage and processing of timber, by affiliated companies," according to the ruling of the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv.
Of course, in conversations with journalists, Andriy Tyshchenko and Oleksandr Kvartyrka deny everything.
Earlier, EcoPolitic reported that through its inaction, the Supervisory Board of "Forests of Ukraine" supports corrupt management.
Corruption in the Dnipro State Environmental Inspectorate is systemic. Law enforcement officers have detained the head of one of the departments, accusing her of illicit enrichment. Her superior, who previously had already been involved in criminal proceedings, is still employed.
