Kyiv ranks first among Ukraine’s regions in terms of the number of individuals registered as owners or beneficiaries of at least 50 companies. As of October 2026, there were 131 such owners in the capital out of 478 nationwide, according to data from an OpenDataBot study published on October 26.
Thus, Kyiv accounts for more than a quarter of all so-called mass company owners listed in the Unified State Register.
Second place goes to the Kyiv region, where 34 individuals are registered, each linked to at least 50 companies.
In third place is the Dnipropetrovsk region with 27 such owners.
Next are the Donetsk region, where 24 mass company owners are recorded, and the Kharkiv region with 18 entries.
Combined, Kyiv and the Kyiv region have 165 mass owners, accounting for more than a third of the national total.
At the same time, the largest owners by number of affiliated companies are also predominantly based in the capital.
Vitaliy Ilnitsky of Kyiv ranks first in the Ukrainian ranking with 5,889 companies. Another Kyiv resident, Vladislav Melekhin, ranks third with 858 companies.
Kateryna Doroshenko of Kyiv ranks fifth with 674 registered companies.
The largest mass owner outside Kyiv is Ruslan Merzlyakov from Donetsk, who is listed as the owner or beneficial owner of 2,221 companies.
According to the study’s methodology, mass owners are defined as individuals with registration ties to at least 50 legal entities.
However, the owner’s address listed in the registry does not necessarily correspond to the location where the companies they own actually operate.
Therefore, the concentration of mass owners in Kyiv does not mean that a corresponding proportion of these companies conducts business directly in the capital.
The structure of ownership of a large number of legal entities deserves special attention. Miroslav Laba, an expert on tax and regulatory policy at the Economic Expert Platform, notes that the registration of hundreds of companies under a single individual may be a sign of nominal ownership.
At the same time, he emphasizes that the mere fact that a single individual owns or manages a large number of companies does not, in and of itself, violate the law.
According to the expert, to ensure transparency in business activities, it is important to identify the actual managers and individuals who make business decisions.
In total, according to “OpenDataBot,” as of October 2026, there were 478 individuals registered in Ukraine, each of whom is linked to 50 or more companies.
Source: “OpenDataBot,” study dated October 26, 2026.
The capital plans to add over 1.5 GW of additional heat generation capacity, in particular through the construction of backup boiler houses, which, according to current estimates, will take about two months to complete, said Mykola Kalashnyk, Ukraine’s Minister of Recovery, Infrastructure, and Transport.
“According to current estimates, the work will take approximately two months to complete, with equipment installation at certain sites scheduled to be finished by the end of December. Therefore, this capacity will bolster the capital’s heat supply already during the heating season,” he wrote on his Telegram channel on Sunday.
According to the minister, he, along with representatives of the city government, the client, and contractors, inspected the construction of protective structures for critical infrastructure facilities and backup boiler houses in Kyiv, as well as assessed the actual progress of the work.
Kalashnik noted that to accelerate the construction of backup boiler houses, they are exploring the possibility of alternative connections to gas networks, carrying out construction and gas-related work simultaneously, increasing the number of crews, and working in multiple shifts. According to him, the clients for the work are the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in the Kyiv Region and the Kyiv City State Administration, while issues regarding network connections, approval of design solutions, and the provision of equipment are being resolved jointly with city authorities and the gas distribution company.
Kalashnik also noted that there is ongoing coordination between the Ministry, the client, city authorities, and contractors to resolve issues related to network connections, approval of design solutions, and the provision of equipment. At the same time, amendments to the regulatory framework are being developed to accelerate the implementation of similar projects nationwide.
“We also inspected a facility that has been transferred from state to municipal ownership. In the near future, it is expected to become an additional heat source for part of the city. Protecting infrastructure and creating reserve capacity are key components of Kyiv’s resilience plan. A difficult winter lies ahead, and the capital needs these solutions right now,” the minister emphasized.
boiler plant, heat generation, HEATING, INFRASTRUCTURE, KYIV
Kyiv accounts for 28% of the offenses registered in Ukraine during the first nine months of 2026 related to the forgery, destruction, or replacement of VIN codes and other vehicle identification numbers. This was reported by OpenDataBot, citing data from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
In the first nine months of this year, 599 offenses under Article 290 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine were recorded in Ukraine. The highest number of cases was recorded in Kyiv—169. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast ranked second with 114 cases, and Odesa Oblast ranked third with 45.
In total, these three regions account for 328 cases, or about 55% of all offenses registered during this period.
Compared to the same period in 2025, the number of such offenses increased by 22%—from 387 to 599.
At the same time, the rate of cases referred to court remains low. In the first nine months of 2026, only five criminal cases under Article 290 of the Criminal Code were referred to court—about 1% of the total number of offenses recorded during this period.
In total, from 2020 through September 2026, 11,417 such offenses were recorded in Ukraine. 7,152 cases remain on record, and 69 cases have been referred to court over nearly seven years.
The destruction, forgery, or alteration of a vehicle’s identification number is punishable by a fine ranging from 2,550 to 4,250 UAH, community service for up to two years, probation, or restriction of liberty for up to three years.
Source: OpenDataBot.
More than 16 billion hryvnias have already been spent on improving the capital’s resilience since the beginning of 2026, compared to 2 billion hryvnias last year, and another 4.5–5 billion hryvnias are planned to be spent by the end of this year, said Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Center for Energy Research.
“This is effectively a tenfold increase in investment, and these investments are specifically in security measures. This includes protecting high-voltage substations, providing backup power for essential sewer systems, and providing backup power for heating systems,” he said during a discussion titled “Ukraine on the Threshold of Winter: Energy, Defense, and the New Diplomatic Reality” at the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Friday.
At the same time, according to the expert, the city needs an additional approximately EUR1.5 billion to carry out the necessary work to improve resilience.
As he noted, this year’s preparations for the heating season in Kyiv were funded primarily by the local budget, while the central budget’s share amounted to only about 10%.
“The national budget is not in very good shape right now, and payments in treasury accounts were frozen for over a month, which dealt a severe blow to all local authorities and to winter preparations as well,” explained the director of the Center for Economic Development.
As a result, some of the equipment that the city had planned to install by November or December will have to be put into operation later due to the four-week delay.
As Kharchenko recalled, in January 2026, all of Kyiv’s local power generation capacity was destroyed. In other words, Kyiv—with consumption of approximately 2 GW at a temperature of -10°C, and consumption of 1.2 GW under the current weather conditions in Ukraine—had 1.3 GW of domestic generating capacity until January 2026.
“In January 2026, these facilities were physically destroyed. What does this lead to? It leads precisely to the effects that are currently causing great distress among Kyiv residents,” explained Kharchenko.
In the absence of power generation in the city, the metro shuts down and switches to backup power, and the water utility’s pumping stations also shut down and switch to backup power—which, under such operating conditions, cannot provide full service.
However, according to the expert, despite this, the city has currently secured its key systems against man-made accidents and strategic technological issues.
“But it’s one thing to maintain water pressure in the water mains—which allows water to circulate through the pipes, fill reservoirs, and support basic infrastructure—and quite another to deliver pressure, say, to Pechersk or certain other districts located on hills,” he added.
This cannot be achieved without the operation of the main power supply lines at the water utility’s facilities.
“Therefore, certain inconveniences this winter are almost inevitable,” the expert concluded.
According to Kharchenko, in most cities it is impossible—due to engineering and regulatory factors—to implement technical projects aimed at improving energy resilience in a single season lasting seven to eight months; this would take two to three years.
“First, you spend seven to eight months on paperwork—even if you have the money—and then you start building something. This applies to everything: installing backup power supplies, backup generators, decentralized cogeneration plants—absolutely everything,” he explained.
According to the director of the Center for Energy Efficiency (CEE), Kyiv, in particular, needs approximately another EUR1.5 billion to do everything necessary to ensure the city’s resilience. Nationwide, the need could amount to 250–300 billion UAH per year for at least the next two years.
energy resilience, HEATING SEASON, INVESTMENTS, Kharchenko, KYIV, POWER GENERATION
The “Silpo” supermarket chain has opened a new designer supermarket in Kyiv, at the Taryan Towers Residential Complex (12 Ioanna Pavla II Street), according to the company’s press office.
The supermarket’s design is inspired by the theme of space.
Silpo-Food LLC, which operates the Silpo chain, was established in early August 2016. As of June 2026, the chain operated 312 supermarkets.
According to YouControl, the founder of the LLC is PJSC “Retail Capital” (100%, Kyiv), a closed-end, non-diversified venture corporate investment fund. The ultimate beneficiary is Volodymyr Kostelman.
Silpo-Food’s revenue for 2025 increased by 13.97% compared to 2024—to 106.013 billion UAH, while net profit amounted to 1.205 billion UAH, compared to 154.1 million UAH for the same period the previous year.
It is part of the Fozzy Group, a retail and industrial group with more than 825 retail outlets throughout the country. The company operates retail chains of various formats: “Silpo” supermarkets, “Fozzy” wholesale hypermarkets, “Fora” neighborhood stores, “Thrash!” discount stores, “Bila Romashka” pharmacy supermarkets, and “E-ZOO” pet stores.
Kyiv, based on the results of the first nine months of 2026, showed the largest negative balance in Ukraine between companies that registered in the capital after changing their region and those that legally left it. The capital’s net balance was minus 559 companies, according to an analysis by Experts Club based on OpenDataBot statistics.
The second-largest negative result was recorded in the Dnipropetrovsk region—minus 378 companies. In the Odesa region, the balance was minus 84; in the Poltava region, minus 66; and in the Volyn region, minus 65.
In total, 17 regions had a negative balance of legal relocations.
At the same time, in eight regions, the number of companies that changed their registration to that region exceeded the number of those that left it. The largest net gain was recorded in the Sumy region—a net gain of 412 companies. The Kharkiv region saw a net gain of 406 companies, the Zaporizhzhia region—401, the Lviv region—161, and the Kherson region—109.
Chernihiv Oblast also had a positive balance—a net increase of 34 companies—as did Zakarpattia Oblast (27) and Chernivtsi Oblast (8).
The most popular single route remained Kyiv to Kyiv Oblast: 468 companies changed their registered address from the capital to the oblast. At the same time, 350 companies moved their registration in the opposite direction.
Another 340 companies re-registered from Kyiv to the Zaporizhzhia region, and 331 to the Kharkiv region. From the Dnipropetrovsk region, 322 companies moved their registered address to the capital.
According to analysts at Experts Club, the significant positive balance in frontline and war-affected regions should be interpreted with particular caution. Since these figures refer to registered addresses, such statistics do not in themselves indicate a relocation of production facilities, offices, or the majority of employees to those areas.
Source: OpenDataBot
