A thousand days have passed since the large-scale war with Russia began. One of the instigators who called for the recognition of the borders of illegal formations in the temporarily occupied territories of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions was former Kyiv mayor Leonid Chernovetsky.
In 2022, the Office of the Prosecutor General announced suspicions against Chernovetsky, and the Security Service of Ukraine put him on the wanted list.
“According to the investigation, the day after the start of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, the former mayor posted on his Facebook page about the possibility and even necessity of recognizing the borders of terrorist organizations – the illegal formations ‘Donetsk People's Republic’ and ‘Luhansk People's Republic,’” the statement said.
3 Chernovetsky was also charged with causing damages to Kyiv amounting to nearly 250 million hryvnias by transferring a plot on Parkova Road in Kyiv for the construction of a helicopter pad in the interests of Yanukovych.
Russian Money for Chernovetsky
Chernovetsky's affinity for Russia did not arise by chance. Back in the mid-1990s, it was Russian money that became his first capital. Thus, we recount how Gazprom financed Chernovetsky. This is a story about the scandalous construction of a huge country house for Chernovetsky in the village of Khlepcha, near Kyiv.
When the construction of the estate was still far from completion, in 1995, Chernovetsky, then the owner of the business structure ‘Pravex,’ suddenly decided to sell it to the Russian ‘Gazprom.’ According to my information, the deal amounted to one and a half million dollars. The money was transferred to one of Chernovetsky's foreign accounts. Allegedly, the new owners acquired the property for their residence. Rumors suggested that it would serve as either a country house for receptions or a luxury hotel.
Gazprom was considered the owner of the unfinished castle from 1995 to 2006. However, for eleven years, Gazprom, with its billions, somehow failed to complete its new project in the village of Khlepcha. This indicates that the Russians did not have serious plans for this building. Perhaps the then-leaders of Gazprom, together with Chernovetsky, simply laundered the money ‘into the shadows’ by dividing it up, and the amount could have been significantly greater than one and a half million dollars.
4 Architect Boris Pysarenko told me about the first arrival of Gazprom representatives in Khlepcha.
“A group of Russian gas workers – about ten men – came here to Chernovetsky's estate,” recalled Boris Nazarovych. “They walked around the castle several times, examined every nook and cranny. And they were satisfied. I was puzzled: why do they need this ‘mansion’? I asked. It turned out that the Russians needed the castle to come here and have a good time. And there was no need to set up an office for the company in the village, the visitors said.
In March 2006, Gazprom representatives sold the Khlepcha estate. Its new owner was one of the residents of Kyiv's Obolon. But he also did not rush to complete the castle. Then the house started changing hands – there were a series of resales.”
Land Combination and the Start of Large-Scale Construction
So, how did the story of constructing this architectural marvel begin?
In the early 1990s, for Chernovetsky's subordinates from the ‘Commercial Systems’ association of the Pravex conglomerate in Khlepcha, specifically on the then-Kosiore Street, six plots of land of approximately 15 hundred square meters each were allocated. At that time, no one would dare allocate a hectare of land for construction to a single person. Then, in a strange way, these hundredths were merged into one (they were consolidated), and eventually, they came under the thumb and full control of Chernovetsky himself, who decided to ‘plant’ a large castle on this territory. And he did…
The dimensions of this wonder are 20 by 30 meters, with a height of 26 meters. The total area is 1,990 square meters, and the residential area is 648 square meters, featuring almost a hundred rooms, two elevators, four floors, plus an attic, towers, and underground garages… On the estate, a water tower and utility and technical blocks were constructed.
5 The project of the castle for Chernovetsky was developed by architect Boris Pysarenko, who worked on the documentation together with a group of engineers of the appropriate profile. Pysarenko conducted author supervision over this construction and was both the foreman and the supplier of materials.
Boris Nazarovych Pysarenko graduated from the Kyiv Art Institute in 1966 (specialization – artist-architect). His biography includes lines about his directorship at an art school, teaching at his alma mater, and working in the architecture department of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
However, working on the castle project was a special chapter. It was a new path, new opportunities, and a great desire to express something of his own in the field of architecture.
Pysarenko candidly told the author of these lines that he put his heart and soul into this whim of the banker-millionaire. The architect asked Chernovetsky to sign an author agreement with him.
“However, Leonid Mykhailovych replied that there was no need for this, as he was ‘an extremely honest person.’ Therefore, according to him, he would generously reward me for my work,” Pysarenko said. “I believed him, to my detriment. How could I know then that Chernovetsky would deceive me and in the end, I would receive a ‘nothing’ for my project?”
In my journalistic notebook, I have recorded a conversation with architect Boris Pysarenko. He told me about the first years of constructing this castle when he and his colleague Yevhen Nikolenko went to the site – to the village of Khlepcha, to see where the palace for the millionaire would be built.
A topographic survey was conducted, and the process began.
6 “The castle ‘grew’ without any permits,” recalled Boris Nazarovych. “It was only after the roof appeared that a commotion arose: people saw that something unusual, impressive was sticking out on the hill. It was as if some monster had emerged. The authorities demanded explanations. And then I had to knock on the doors of the village council in Velyka Soltanivka – various issues had to be resolved, including land-related ones. The Vasylkiv architecture officials were also pressing, demanding documents for the castle. But where to get them? Later, even one of the prosecutor's office employees (I think it was one of Chernovetsky's former acquaintances from the prosecutor's office) got involved in the process of legalizing this construction – he personally went to the Bureau of Technical Inventory and resolved all problematic issues there.”
Architecture of Classicism and Renaissance
“Of course, I didn't travel abroad to ‘learn the experience’ of castle construction, but I did go to the library – read, browsed magazines, studied specialized literature on castle construction,” said Boris Pysarenko. “I was particularly impressed by the ancient palaces of Austria. But if you ask me what style predominates in this building, my answer would be this: here – just a little bit, so to speak, a mix. One could talk about the architecture of Classicism and Renaissance…”
–Perhaps Chernovetsky expressed special wishes regarding your project. What pleased him, and what did not?
-I did not hear any proposals from him.
–Do you remember your first meeting with Chernovetsky?
-I clearly remember that day. I was working in my architectural workshop on Reitarska Street. Around 5 PM, Chernovetsky came to me. I showed him the facade sketches, talked about them, and asked Leonid Mykhailovych to approve and sign them. Which he did.
And the architect found himself on the street…
When asked if his project appealed to Chernovetsky's then-wife Alina Aivazova, Boris Nazarovych replied:
“There was a slight conflict with Aivazova. I remember my first visit to this lady at the Teacher's House (where the Chernovetsky's store was located). One time I went there to show Aivazova the interior project of the castle. Imagine that I waited for an hour and a half for Aivazova to have mercy and accept me. Although she periodically walked past me in the hallway – there