The HACC held another hearing in the illicit-enrichment case of AMCU head Pavlo Kyrylenko.

The questioning of the defendant Alla Kyrylenko's father, witness Oleksandr Matiienko, begun today.

Matiienko's counsel filed a motion to hold the questioning behind closed doors, citing the protection of confidential information and the privacy of his personal life. The SAPO prosecutor objected, stressing the high public interest in the case. Even though the Kyrylenkos' lawyers backed the motion, the court dismissed it as unfounded.

During questioning, Matiienko gave details about the family's property. The apartment on Ivasiuk Avenue was bought in 2020 by his mother-in-law, Albina Vinnikova, with her own money. He said Vinnikova lived there for a time after the renovation, and that before that the family had lived together in the house in Khotianivka. He and his wife, Nataliia, oversaw the renovation work, but the owner paid for it. He does not know its cost or how long it took.

The apartment was found by his wife and mother-in-law — through newspaper ads and by going door-to-door to ask whether any apartments were for sale. According to the witness, they never firmly assigned the four rooms, since they would live wherever the grandmother said — in their family, elders are respected.

In 2019 the family moved to Kyiv and rented a home, with the witness and his wife covering the costs. They moved into the Khotianivka house for good in the summer of 2020.

Asked about his official income since 2014, Matiienko named his pension and IDP benefits. He gave up the IDP benefits after buying the Khotianivka house. He stressed that the family had bought the house, the land plot, and the cars with their own savings.

As the prosecutor pressed him on the size of those savings, the witness reacted emotionally at first but then confirmed the sum exceeded UAH 2 million. The savings were kept in foreign currency — more than USD 10,000.

Matiienko flatly refused, however, to name the exact sum he had taken out of temporarily occupied Horlivka. Asked by the prosecutor whether he regarded this as self-incriminating testimony, the witness said he did, citing fears for his life and that of his wife, Nataliia.

The prosecutor asked about his sources of income before 2014. Matiienko said that from 1988 he worked in car diagnostics, in the technical department of the traffic police, and that from 1997 to 2005 he also dealt in currency, which brought in USD 3,000–4,000 a month. After retiring in 2005 and up to 2014, he worked at a car service station earning about USD 100 a day. His wife brought in extra income too, running a joint business of four retail outlets. The witness put the total income from them at over USD 400,000.

Describing property acquired before 2010–2014, Matiienko listed several cars, a house and a summer house in Horlivka, and an apartment for his daughter Alla for USD 33,000. He also paid for renovations in his daughter's home and for her higher education.

The witness explained the sharp rise in spending in 2020 by saying the family had grown tired of moving around Ukraine, so they decided to settle in Kyiv and spend the money they had taken out of occupied Horlivka in installments in 2014–2015. On the occupied territory, he said, the savings had been kept in a garage. He explained the large cash deposits into bank accounts by saying that a currency exchange in Uzhhorod had refused to accept his old dollar bills and advised him to put them into a PrivatBank account.

The witness also described buying other property near Kyiv. He bought the Khotianivka house for USD 100,000 on the advice of acquaintances, stressing that he had not consulted Pavlo Kyrylenko about the deal. To invest the money, the family first bought an additional land plot and later two garage units. The questioning also touched on the building of a swimming pool and the purchase of a BMW worth USD 60,000.

Pavlo Kyrylenko is charged with failing to declare assets and illicit enrichment, while his wife Alla is charged with aiding illicit enrichment. According to the investigation, Kyrylenko's 2024 declaration omitted 20 real estate properties and a vehicle worth over UAH 72 million. His and his wife's combined official income for 2020–2023 amounted to just UAH 4.7 million.