Maksym Kozytskyi

Maksym Kozytskyi UA

Head of Lviv Regional Military Administration

Biography

Maksym Kozytskyi was born in Lviv in 1981. He finished Mykolaiv Secondary School No. 1 in Lviv oblast. He studied at Danylo Halytskyi Lviv National Medical University to become a surgeon. In 2004-2006, he was an intern in surgery at the medical university internship. In 2026, he received a Master of Medicine degree in General Medicine from Danylo Halytskyi Lviv National Medical University.

He received his second education by correspondence at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Management of Organizations, Master's degree, 2007) and at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (Accounting and Auditing, Specialist in Accounting and Auditing, 2007).

Career

From January to September 2007 - Deputy Director of Ukrmedresurs LLC.
From September 2007 to May 2009 - methodologist at Lviv Regional Health Center.
From September 2007 to November 2010 - member of the Supervisory Board of Ukrnaftogazinvest LLC.
From November 2010 to June 2014 - Deputy CEO for General Affairs of Ukrnaftogazinvest LLC.
From December 2009 to June 2014 - General Director, Deputy General Director of Prykarpattia Energy Company LLC with a concurrent position.
From June 2014 to October 2016 - Deputy CEO of Prykarpattia Energy Company LLC.
From October 2016 to January 2020 - Director of Eco-Optima LLC.

Political activity

In 2015, he ran for Lviv Regional Council from the Samopomich party, but was not elected.

In 2019, he was a candidate for the head of Lviv Regional State Administration. On February 5, 2020, he was appointed head of Lviv Regional StateAdministration. He became Head of Lviv regional organization of the Servant of the People party. He headed the list of the Servant of the People party in the elections to Lviv Regional Council.

Corruption scandals

Conflict of interest

The family of the head of the Regional Military Administration (RMA) owns businesses in the oil and gas industry and renewable energy, which are united in the Zakhidnadraservis group. In September 2019, the Kozytskyi family became a sponsor of the Servant of the People party. According to the Chesno portal, after Kozytskyi was elected Head of the local branch of the Servant of the People party, the number of winning tenders by the family's companies increased dramatically. In total, oil and gas companies of the Kozytskyi family won tenders worth UAH 7.5 billion, with the state-owned Ukrnafta and Ukrgazvydobuvannia being the largest clients.

In turn, Finport Technologies Inc., whose beneficiary is Zynovii Kozytskyi, has been the main contractor of the Prosecutor's Office to support the websites of the Prosecutor General's Office and regional prosecutor's offices since 2019, and has been providing software and technical support for the NABU's Unified State Register of Declarations since 2022. Since 2019, Finport Technologies Inc. he has provided services to government agencies worth more than UAH 60 million. The High Anti-Corruption Court ordered the NABU to launch a pre-trial investigation of Finport Technologies Inc. In particular, the NABU should check for a possible conflict of interest in connection with maintenance of prosecutor's offices websites by the companies of Maksym Kozytskyi’s father, Zynovii Kozytskyi.

Relations with Karel Komarek, Gazprom's long-term partner

Zynovii Kozytskyi, Maksym Kozytskyi's father, and Czech billionaire Karel Komarek are partners in three Ukrainian companies: Horyzonty LLC, PEK LLC, and GBL LLC. In fact, the partnership between the Kozytsky family and Karel Komarek, a longtime partner of Gazprom, whose joint company (Horyzonty LLC) was accused by the SBU of financing terrorism in the LPR and DPR, has been going on since 2014 and still continues.

The cooperation between Komárek's MND and Russia's Gazprom officially beganin 2013, when a joint venture Moravia Gas Storage a.s. (MGS) was established, in which Gazprom owned 50+% of the shares, and the Czech MND, owned by Komarek, had a smaller share. The board of directors of Moravia Gas Storage a.s.included Oleksandr Medvediev, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Board, as well as other Russian Gazprom managers, many of whom were identified by Russian opposition media as former or current employees of Russian special services. Komarek's business was financed by Russian state-owned banks VTB and Sberbank.

In 2011, Karel Komarek became the owner of the Samara oil terminal in the city of Oktiabrsk in Russia. In 2018, the SBU and the State Financial Monitoring Service recommended that the State Service of Geology and Mineral Resources not allow Komarek's Horyzonty company to obtain special mining permits due to possible involvement in the supply of oil products to the LPR and DPR. Although Karel Komarek's MND claimed that the terminal was sold in 2022, journalists' investigations indicate that the Czech billionaire retained control over the Samaraterminal at least until the end of 2023. Currently, the owner of the terminal is listed as a fictitious person, so there is a possibility that Karel Komarek still owns the asset.

On August 21, 2024, Shevchenkivskyi Court of Kyiv ordered the SBU to initiate criminal proceedings regarding the legality of the Kozytskyi family's cooperation with Karel Komarek, a possible conflict of interest and corruption.

Construction of a road to his father's hotel at public expense

Maksym Kozytskyi spent UAH 25 million from the budget on a road in the resort village of Skhidnytsia to a hotel built by his father, businessman ZynoviiKozytskyi. One part of the road was built at the expense of the state budget, and the other part - at the expense of a private company.

Maksym Kozytskyi personally approved the continuation of the road reconstruction. These works on Hirska Street in Skhidnytsia turned out to be the most expensive on the list of roads repaired with money from Lviv RMA in 2023. The NABU opened a criminal investigation into the conflict of interest and abuse of office by Maksym Kozytskyi.

Assistance to fugitives in traveling abroad

In June 2023, investigative journalists accused the leadership of Lviv Regional Military Administration of facilitating the departure of pseudo-volunteers abroad through the Shliakh system. The regional administration, headed by Maksym Kozytskyi, issued more than 32,000 permits for members of 1,800 organizations to travel through the Shliakh system. Also, Maksym Kozytskyi, as Head of the Regional Military Administration, refused for a long time to provide lists of people who were allowed to travel abroad by the administration.

Kozitskyi family’s Association includes a sanctioned company that cooperates with Rosneft

In February 2024, the NACP recognized Weatherford International as an international war sponsor. In 2022 alone, Weatherford paid more than $15 million in taxes to the Russian budget. In addition, Weatherford is one of the key contractors of Rosneft, the largest Russian oil company. According to the registries, Weatherford International is a co-founder of the Oil and Gas of UkraineAssociation. Until 2021, the beneficiary of the Oil and Gas of Ukraine Association was Maksym Kozytskyi, and currently - his father Zynovii Kozytskyi. As part of the association's work, cooperation between the sanctioned company and the Kozytskyi family continues.

Offshore business of the Kozytskyi family

On November 6, 2024, Hennadii Sikalov, former Head of Poltavaneftehazheologiia, Head of the Last Bastion public union, published reports of Cypriot offshore companies through which the Kozytskyi family's green energy business operates. According to the published documents, the Kozytskyi family's green business evades taxes by hundreds of millions of hryvnias and is lent by state-owned banks (only a few companies received loans of more than €57 million). At the same time, the current head of Lviv RMA, Maksym Kozytskyi, acts as a guarantor of the loans. In the report, Maksym Kozytskyi was listed as a related party of one of the offshore companies. The declaration of Lviv RMA Headdoes not mention any affiliation with Cypriot companies or any debt to him, as indicated in the published documents.

Lending to the family’s businesses by state-owned banks

The Kozytskyi family's energy business received loan financing from Ukreximbank and Ukrgasbank. According to the documents, assets and guarantees of Cypriot offshore companies of the Kozytskyi family and personal guarantees of the Kozytskyi family, including the current Head of Lviv RMA, Maksym Kozytskyi, were used as collateral and guarantees to secure multimillion-dollar loans. For example, the offshore company IVENA LIMITED acted as a guarantor for loans to other companies of the Kozytskyi family. For example, IVENA LIMITED pledged shares in Orivska Wind Farm LLC and Sambirska Solar StationLLC to secure a EUR 42 million loan from the state-owned Ukreximbank. IVENA LIMITED acted as a guarantor for two more loans from Ukreximbank and Ukrgasbank for almost EUR 15 million.

Tax evasion worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias

According to Hennadii Sikalov, the overall structure of the Kozytskyi family's green business is deliberately designed to evade taxes. Through a scheme involving domestic loans and credits, a significant portion of the profits from the activities of Ukrainian companies of the Kozytskyi family is transferred to the accounts of Cypriot companies and taxed at low offshore rates. According to the head of the Last Bastion NGO, their companies have evaded hundreds of millions of hryvnias in taxes.

In particular, the accounts of the Cyprus-based IVENA LIMITED received payments from Ukrainian companies (both green business and oil and gas), and the same IVENA LIMITED accounts were used to make payments to other Kozytskyi's Cyprus-based companies and to provide ‘loans’ to Ukrainian companies also owned by the Kozytskyi family. This way, the ‘excess’ income was withdrawn from the balance sheets of the companies, which financed other projects of the Kozytskyi family in Ukraine through Cypriot accounts, and in subsequent years ‘repaid’ loans from their income to IVENA LIMITED, reducing the profit from which taxes should be paid in Ukraine. In 2020-2022, at least EUR 20 million ‘passed’ through IVENA LIMITED alone. This is the minimum approximate amount that the Kozytskyi family managed to ‘evade’ from taxation in Ukraine for three years thanks to the work of one Cyprus offshore company.

Conflict of interest: the official acted as a guarantor for a loan from state-owned banks

One of the guarantors of the EUR 5.1 million loan to IVENA LIMITED from the state-owned Ukrgasbank was the current head of Lviv Regional Administration, Maksym Kozytskyi. According to Hennadii Sikalov, an additional argument in favour of the loan was the fact that Maksym Kozytskyi was Head of Lviv RMA, which has signs of conflict of interest and corruption. According to the law, officials cannot be involved in asset management.

Lack of information in Maksym Kozytskyi's declaration on offshore business

The financial statements of Kozytskyi's Cyprus-based company, DARVEST LIMITED, in the section “Liabilities to Related Parties” contain information about the current head of Lviv RMA. This can be interpreted as a sign that Maksym Kozytskyi remains a related party to this company. Accordingly, the existence of the Cyprus company's debt requires Maksym Kozytskyi to declare the debt. However, Maksym Kozytskyi's declaration does not mention any affiliation with Cypriot companies and the existence of DARVEST LIMITED's debt to him.