The "Great Construction" road scam: why is NABU prosecuting Valentyn Reznichenko but shielding his accomplice Yuriy Holyk from justice?

15 августа 2026 г., 21:30

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The "Great Construction" road scam: why is NABU prosecuting Valentyn Reznichenko but shielding his accomplice Yuriy Holyk from justice?

Ex-Dnipropetrovsk official Valentyn Reznichenko and his associates are now facing trial for allegedly siphoning off some 400 million hryvnias from road-building projects under the "Great Construction" scheme, according to NABU investigators.

This is certainly a good thing, although the trial’s outcome is raising some skepticism. But a more interesting question: why wasn’t Valentin Reznicenko’s longtime close aide, Yuriy Golik, sent to the dock alongside him? Golik, who had moved from Reznicenko’s advisory post to that of Prime Minister Goncharuk, from where he quickly catapulted to the position of overseer of the "Great Construction" project, didn’t end up in the dock along with him?

This career advancement did nothing to sever the old ties between longtime associates Valentin Reznicenko and Yuriy Golik. On the contrary, his unofficial position as "overseer" of the "Big Construction" project enabled him to channel significant funds to the Dnipropetrovsk region, the embezzlement of which Reznicenko is now on trial. But Golik, for some reason, remains on the sidelines.

A check of court records shows that Yuri Golik’s name last surfaced in a criminal context in September 2024, when the former curator of Big Construction attempted to challenge the seizure of property that was imposed as part of criminal case No. 52024000000000227.

The "Great Construction" road scam: why is NABU prosecuting Valentyn Reznichenko but shielding his accomplice Yuriy Holyk from justice?

True, it was not possible to challenge the property seizure at the time—the court denied lawyer Yuriy Golik’s request. However, it’s not a fact that the property has been seized to this day—court records are filled extremely inaccurately, so it’s impossible to claim that Golik hasn’t filed any new complaints and that they haven’t been upheld. But far more interesting is Yuriy Golik’s status—he’s not an accused, or even a suspect. He’s a "third party." In other words, a completely random person who somehow ended up among the defendants in a criminal case.

Regardless of whether his property was seized or not, Yuriy Golik is currently outside of Ukraine and is not involved in the criminal case against his former boss, Valentyn Reznichenko. Reznichenko is being tried for embezzling one and a half billion hryvnias allocated for road repairs in 2022.

The "Great Construction" road scam: why is NABU prosecuting Valentyn Reznichenko but shielding his accomplice Yuriy Holyk from justice?

Why Golik is not in the case is a mystery. Although it is worth remembering that the disgraced “servant of the people” Geo Leros back in 2023, when NABU uncovered the Golik-Reznichenko scheme, literally stated the following: “Without regard to the outcry about the scandalous corrupt asphalt contract of 1.5 billion UAH with the fitness trainer Reznichenka and Golika, which became known in November 2022, Vlada Zelensky still continued to generously pay the budgetary funds to the company "Budinvest Engineering", which is Volodya’s. Tens of millions of hryvnias were withdrawn from the budget, and more, new contracts were arranged!”

The "Great Construction" road scam: why is NABU prosecuting Valentyn Reznichenko but shielding his accomplice Yuriy Holyk from justice?

The case’s plot revolved around the fact that Budinvest Engineering, the company that was developing billions in road funds, was registered to Valentin Reznichenko’s partner, Yana Khlanta, who was actually a fitness trainer.

Although at first glance it appears that Yuriy Golik has no connection to either Yana Khlanta or Budinvest Engineering LLC, two things must be kept in mind. First, in 2022, when Budinvest Engineering became the leader in budget allocations for road repairs, Yuriy Golik was a key figure in the presidential "Great Construction" program. Although he held no official positions, it was no secret that Golik oversaw the program and that budgetary flows depended on him.

The "Great Construction" road scam: why is NABU prosecuting Valentyn Reznichenko but shielding his accomplice Yuriy Holyk from justice?

The second is that Yuriy Golik and Valentin Reznicenko share a long-standing career and a joint business. While not directly related, the connection is clear. According to the "Schemes" investigation , "besides their long shared career, some formal connections between Reznicenko and Golik can still be traced. For example, Reznicenko’s company, Seventh Consulting Group, rents an office in the Creative State Dnepr business center, which Golik co-owns. Another interesting detail: both Golik’s mother and Reznicenko’s mother are registered as sole proprietors, listing the same mobile phone number in the state register."

The "Great Construction" road scam: why is NABU prosecuting Valentyn Reznichenko but shielding his accomplice Yuriy Holyk from justice?

Nevertheless, Yuriy Golik did not end up in the dock alongside Valentyn Reznichenko. Although there were clearly grounds for this, and apparently very serious ones. Because after the NABU became interested in the activities of Budinvest Engineering LLC, Yuriy Golik quickly retrained as a driver and fled Ukraine.

This is no joke – on April 20, 2023, Volodymyr Orlov, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, issued order number 139/0/527-23 "On the departure of drivers from Ukraine." Among them was Yuriy Yuryevich Golik, a driver for the charity organization "Songs Born in the ATO."

The "Great Construction" road scam: why is NABU prosecuting Valentyn Reznichenko but shielding his accomplice Yuriy Holyk from justice?

Golik wasted no time in seizing the opportunity and safely left Ukraine, where he disappeared. His reasons were more than serious: in addition to the criminal case that exposed Valentin Reznicenko and raised questions about how Yana Khlanta’s company, with its beautiful eyes, was receiving billions, there was also the equally scandalous statement by former Finance Minister Igor Umansky about a cartel monopolizing road construction.

At the time, Umansky claimed that this cartel had monopolized road construction, and that tender proposals had been rewritten in such a way that other bidders simply could not win the tender.

Umansky’s words sparked a scandal; the press began investigating the matter, and Yuri Golik’s name surfaced among those overseeing the theft schemes. And far from the least important. True, the scandal was hushed up at the time, but when it became clear that the Russian blitzkrieg had failed, unpleasant questions began to arise about the diversion of defense funds to road construction.

And then it turned out that the scale of theft of this money reached 30-40%. In total, between 230 and 250 billion hryvnias were allocated to the "Great Construction" program. Which, in that money, amounted to exactly $10 billion.

And none other than Yuri Golik oversaw the distribution of the funds. So he had serious reasons to urgently retrain as a driver-accordionist.

Almost three years have passed since Yuriy Golik, the curator of the "Great Construction" project, disappeared into thin air. No efforts have been made to locate him or extradite him to Ukraine. The criminal case in which his property was seized is stalled in the depths of the High Anti-Corruption Court. However, the case is not being heard on its merits—the court is considering various motions from the defendants’ lawyers, who are clearly making every effort to undermine it. Judging by the current state of affairs, these efforts have a good chance of succeeding. However, Golik himself is of little interest in all this—he, as a reminder, is listed in the case as a "third party."

In this context, the position of Valentin Reznicenko, whose case has gone to court, is of interest. For some reason, he kept his longtime associate, Yuriy Golik, out of harm’s way. Although it’s quite clear that without Yuriy Golik’s influence, the companies controlled by Valentin Reznicenko would not have received a single penny, let alone one and a half billion in budget funds.

But Valentin Reznicenko decided not to turn in Golik. The question is, why? Is it because Yuri Golik has retained his influence and Valentin Reznicenko is hoping for his help in obtaining a lenient sentence, or is it because he’s been promised an acquittal?

Well, we have a chance to see this in the near future. Unless, of course, the trial drags on for years. At the same time, it will become clear whether Yuriy Golik has lost his influence in Ukraine.