The electronic asset declarations submitted on Oct. 31 by Ukraine’s top officials revealed many things the public has long suspected – the country’s leaders, even after the EuroMaidan Revolution, hoard wealth and love luxury.
But they also proved the old adage that birds of a feather flock together – the nation’s politicians, who fiercely oppose each other in the political arena, live side-by-side in luxurious homes in a little town called Kozyn.
This elite community, located 30 kilometers south of Kyiv, has such a concentration of rich people that it is sometimes compared to Russia’s Rublyovka suburb of Moscow or jokingly referred to as “the Ukrainian Beverly Hills.”
Relatively close to the capital, Kozyn is located on the banks of the Dnipro and Kozynka rivers, adjoining the woodland of Koncha-Zaspa, the first state preserve in Soviet Ukraine, and the site of several health resorts. With an official population of only 3,386 people, Kozyn used to be a favorite summer destination for many Kyivans, but since the 2000s it has seen a massive influx of politicians and businesspeople.
Influential residents
The most famous dweller of Kozyn is President Petro Poroshenko himself. The media sometimes refers to Poroshenko’s 1,331 square meter mansion as “the White House” due to its exterior resemblance to the official residence of the U.S. president.
The house, which even has its own chapel, is located on a large land plot (Poroshenko owns 34,396 square meters of the land and rents an additional 7,511 square meters – a strip of land along the river bank – from Kozyn’s town hall).
One of Poroshenko’s political allies, Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction lawmaker Oleksandr Tretiakov, also lives in Kozyn. His declaration says that he has a 568 square meter house on a 7,500 square meter plot of land he has owned since 2001.
Their political foe, Opposition Bloc lawmaker Yulia Lyovochkina, bought a total of 12,882 square meters of land in Kozyn between 2004 and 2014. Her brother, also a lawmaker from the Opposition Bloc and the former head of ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s Presidential Administration, Serhiy Lyovochkin, rents nearly a third of his sister’s land and a 862 square meter house for free.
So many influential people live so close to each other that it has caused some farcical incidents: In June, investigators from the Prosecutor General’s Office, came to what they thought was the house of the wanted former head of Yanukovych’s Presidential Administration, Andriy Klyuyev. But when they mixed addresses and knocked on the door of the neighboring residence, Radical Party leader Oleh Lyashko opened the door. He said that he has been renting the house from his friend Artem Savitsky since 2014.
Another famous parliamentarian residing in Kozyn is ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. There, she rents a 862 square meter house and a 3,362 square meter land plot from Tetiana Sharapova, reportedly a relative of Tymoshenko.
Other notable inhabitants of Kozyn include politicians Bohdan Dubnevych and Nestor Shufrych, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, the head of the State Financial Monitoring Service, Ihor Cherkaskiy, and the head of the State Fiscal Service, Roman Nasirov.
Popular spot
Today, 100 square meters of land in Kozyn cost between $5,000 and $10,000, making it one of the most expensive areas in Ukraine outside of Kyiv. Some land plots with private access to the Dnipro River are priced as high as $17,000 per 100 square meters.
On some local real estate websites, a two-floor, 572 square meter house on a 9,000 square meter land plot on Starokyievskaya Street, where Opposition Bloc member Shufrych lives, is advertised at a price of $1.4 million. The market price of a three-floor 550 square meter mansion on the riverside is $1.9 million.
“The Kozyn area has become very pricey in the last decade or so,” said Andrey Guselnikov, the co-founder of the Olimp real estate consulting firm. He added that for Ukraine’s elite, the town is perfectly placed for work and relaxation.
“It’s easy to access from Kyiv via the Stolichnoye highway. It has developed infrastructure, and is close to the river and nature.” n
