Ukrainian ex-minister spent 435 million hryvnias on housing in Dubai: what the residential complex looks like

The wanted former Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine Mykola Zlochevsky owns two luxury apartments in one of the elite residential complexes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He bought the property for $11 million almost immediately after the Revolution of Dignity.

This is evidenced by a data leak from the Dubai Land Department and UAE utilities (Dubai Unlocked), Radio Svoboda reports. Using the transactions, journalists verified some of the data and found many former and current officials among the owners of luxury real estate in Dubai: ministers, MPs, judges, prosecutors, heads of state-owned enterprises and their relatives.

Among the owners of the luxury property was the former Yanukovych-era minister Mykola Zlochevsky. He owns two apartments in the elite residential complex W Residences Dubai - The Palm, located on the artificial palm island - Palm Jumeirah.

The area of the apartments is over 1.7 thousand square meters. According to the transactions, they cost the former minister almost $11 million (UAH 435.46 million at the exchange rate as of May 15). Zlochevsky purchased the property in July 2019, when he had already been removed from office and put on the wanted list on suspicion of embezzling a loan that the National Bank had granted to the then-operating Real Bank.

Because of this, Mykola Zlochevsky transferred the Dubai property to his daughter Anna, who remains the owner to this day. The Zlochevsky family used passports of Cypriot citizens in real estate transactions. Subsequently, their father's gas production company Burisma was also re-registered to Anna and her sister Karina Zlochevska.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA reported that in 2021, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) documented an attempt by Mykola Zlochevsky to bribe the leadership of anti-corruption agencies for $6 million. However, in 2023, he reached a deal with the investigation and actually paid off the charges - the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office closed the proceedings after the former minister pleaded guilty to bribery and donated more than UAH 660 million to the army. However, he remains on the wanted list in other criminal cases.

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