Despite NABU and SAP submitting the indictment in the high-profile "Clean City" case to the HACC on October 6, 2026, the figures involved in the corruption scheme have retained their key positions in Kyiv's land block. Denys Komarnytskyi, whom investigators consider the organizer of the criminal organization and who has been on the wanted list since February 2025, continues to exert influence on the allocation of the capital's land—even from Vienna, according to sources. The specialized Kyiv City Council commission, consisting of 24 deputies, is effectively paralyzed: since the winter of 2025, it has held only a single meeting dedicated to a military issue, which took place without a chairman.
A Commission That Does Not Meet: How the Land Block is Blocked
Following the exposure of the corruption scheme by NABU and SAP in February 2025, the full-scale work of the specialized Kyiv City Council commission on land issues effectively came to a halt. Deputies serving on the commission refuse to work under the leadership of Mykhailo Terentiev, who figures in the anti-corruption case. As a result, routine meetings are blocked, and the only meeting held since the winter of 2025 was devoted to a military issue and took place without a chairman. At the same time, Terentiev still heads the commission. On November 5, 2026, he switched from the UDAR faction to Batkivshchyna, but this did not lead to a change in the commission's leadership: an attempt to include the issue of changing the chairman on the agenda failed, with the proposal supported by only 17 out of 24 deputies. Another figure in the case, deputy Olena Marchenko, also remains on the commission, while Valentyna Pelykh retained her post as director of the Kyiv City State Administration's land resources department.
Influence from Abroad: Komarnytskyi's Position
According to Ekonomichna Pravda, even while residing in Vienna, Komarnytskyi continues to influence decisions regarding communal land. Sources in the publication claim that he is interested in keeping Terentiev as head of the commission and agrees to a potential replacement of the leader only on the condition that a person from his inner circle is appointed. One of the publication's interlocutors summed up his position in a concise formula: "The land is mine, I will manage it." According to Bihus.Info, Terentiev, along with Komarnytskyi and former Kyiv City Council secretary Volodymyr Bondarenko, discussed which land issues to put to a vote and, according to the outlet, sought out commercially attractive plots for future development.
Five Billion Hryvnias on "Freeze": Financial Consequences for the City
The paralysis of the land commission has concrete financial consequences for the Kyiv budget. According to the commission's chairman, draft decisions have accumulated in the Kyiv City Council that could potentially bring about UAH 5 billion to the city budget. In total, revenues from land operations in the Kyiv budget for 2026 are projected at UAH 7 billion—about 6% of all the city's revenues. At the same time, as Kyiv City Council deputy Dmytro Belotserkovets noted, rent and land tax continue to come in; operations for the sale and redemption of land have primarily stopped. Due to delays, entrepreneurs who need to formalize or extend rights to plots have found themselves in a legal limbo.
"Toilet Schemes" and the Indictment: What Investigators Found
Komarnytskyi left Ukraine in early 2025 during the "Clean City" operation. On February 10, 2025, NABU declared him wanted, and journalists subsequently spotted the former deputy in Vienna. In October 2025, Austrian authorities, with the participation of Ukrainian detectives, searched Komarnytskyi and interrogated him. According to investigators, members of the criminal organization used mechanisms of illegal appropriation of communal land, specifically the so-called "toilet schemes": small structures were registered on plots to obtain land out of competition allegedly for their maintenance. According to anti-corruption agencies, throughout 2023–2024, members of the organization planned to seize land belonging to the territorial community of Kyiv worth over UAH 70 million. There are nine defendants in the case. On October 6, 2026, the indictment was sent to the HACC; the preparatory hearing scheduled for October 15 could not be completed due to the failure of two participants to appear.
A Reboot That Isn't Happening
Thus, the problem of Kyiv's land block is not limited to the deputies' inability to gather for a meeting. Maintaining the current commission leadership serves Komarnytskyi's interests and essentially prevents the reboot of the entire system of land decision-making in the capital. While the indictment undergoes judicial review in the HACC and the defendants continue to hold their posts, the city is losing potential billion-hryvnia revenues, and entrepreneurs remain in a legal vacuum. The question of when and in what form a real personnel change in the land block will take place remains open at the time of publication.
