The co-owner of Russian companies that trade in the former Epicenter hypermarkets in occupied Luhansk and Melitopol is Oleksandr Yakubovsky, a business partner of the brother of Natalia Korolevska, a former MP from the OPFL. At the same time, Yakubovsky is also a co-founder of a Ukrainian company associated with the politician. The former MP's ties to business in the occupation and her visits to Moscow are described in the investigation by Schemes (a project of Radio Liberty), UNN reports.
The journalists found out that after the full-scale invasion, the Russian company Stroycenter LLC has been operating in the former Epicenter in Luhansk. Skhemy found this information in the open register of legal entities of the Russian Federation, which included information from the closed registers of the LPR group. This happened after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees on the "accession" of the partially occupied regions of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk oblasts to Russia at the end of September 2022. The fact that it is this Russian company that is trading in the former Luhansk Epicenter is also evidenced by the cash receipts that the journalists received: they contain the tax number and the name of the aforementioned Stroycenter LLC.
Oleksandr Yakubovsky is the director of Stroycentr and its co-owner (he owns a 45% stake through Universal-Yug LLC). In the same way, he owns shares in Stroycentr-Zaporizhzhia, which is registered at the Epicenter address in occupied Melitopol.
In 2022, Oleksandr Yakubovsky, together with the Russian military, tried to take control of Epicenters in the then-occupied Kherson. "Suspilne reportedthat the occupiers held employees hostage and said that the trade would continue under Russian leadership.
As journalists have found out, Yakubovsky has long-standing ties to former MP Natalia Korolevska from the OPFL. Together with her associate Oleh Pogodin, Yakubovsky co-owns the Ukrainian company Intertrade, and together with the ex-MP's brother Konstantin Korolevsky, he owns the Russian company UBS LLC, registered in the Russian-annexed Crimea.
The journalists of "Schemes" called Oleksandr Yakubovsky and asked him to comment on the facts revealed in the investigation. In response, he said: "I do not understand who occupies Luhansk region. By the Russians? This is unreliable information". After that, he hung up and did not answer further calls.
The PR department of the Epicenter chain reported: "Epicenter K LLC does not control the activities in the shopping centers located in Luhansk (since 2014) and Melitopol (since 2022, after the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation troops into the territory of Ukraine and the occupation of the city). We do not know who is operating in these shopping centers after losing control over them.
"Schemes has not yet managed to get a comment from Natalia Korolevska.
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The powers of MPs Natalia Korolevska and her husband Yuriy Solod were terminated by the Verkhovna Rada in February 2023. In the same month, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office notified Korolevska of suspicion of entering false information in her 2020 electronic declaration. Earlier, the fact that Nataliia Korolevska owns real estate in Moscow region, which she has never declared, was mentioned in the investigation by Skhemy .
According to a source in law enforcement, Korolevska left Ukraine in April 2022. In February 2023, she was put on the wanted list. And at the end of the same year, the NABU updated the suspicion against the former MP: detectives found that the amount of her undeclared property exceeded UAH 13 million.