500 Million Under the Rug of Luhansk OVA: How Officials Created an "Elite Club" for Housing Purchases Amid Transparent Municipal Lotterie

On October 27, a notable event took place: the State Fund for Support of Youth Housing Construction (Derzhmolodzhytlo), in cooperation with the Lysychansk City Military Administration, conducted an open selection of winners for a preferential housing loan program. The procedure was broadcast live on YouTube, and the winners among local community residents were selected using the independent digital tool RandomPicker.

On the surface, this presented a model of transparent European governance. Yet, while local communities showcase open procedures, on the regional level — inside the offices of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration (OVA) — a parallel, large-scale discretionary scheme is unfolding, involving half a billion hryvnias.

On October 21, the Head of the Luhansk OVA signed Order № 516, injecting an additional 150 million UAH into its regional housing initiative, bringing the total program fund to 500 million UAH. However, unlike the open broadcasts of the Lysychansk administration, regional budget funds are being allocated under entirely opaque, discretionary rules.

The Two Worlds of Order № 452: Transparency for the Poor, Closed Doors for Insiders

Under foundational Order № 452 of the Head of the Luhansk OVA dated September 16, 2026 — drafted by the Reintegration Department headed by Liudmyla Didenko and registered by the Kharkiv Interregional Justice Department (№ 24/24) — internally displaced persons (IDPs) across the region were split into two unequal tiers:

1. "The Elite Tier" (Registry № 2): Candidates receive exceptional terms — up to 99.99% compensation of the housing cost (up to 3 million UAH per family)! Crucially, winners are selected WITHOUT any random computer selection, without a lottery draw, and without YouTube streaming! Everything is decided behind closed doors at the sole discretion of OVA officials.
2. "The General IDP Tier" (Registry № 5): Compensation covers only 50%, requires a substantial personal down payment, and relies on an uncertain selection process held only if any remaining funds trickled down after the primary registries are funded.

Furthermore, the OVA artificially excluded tens of thousands of victims by establishing a discriminatory criterion: eligibility was restricted strictly to individuals displaced after February 24, 2022, effectively disenfranchising the first wave of IDPs displaced since 2014.

The "Melnyk Filter" and the Emergency Extension to October 30

To suppress the pool of legitimate applicants, a bureaucratic filter was activated at the initial stage of accepting submissions via regular email. Instead of an automated, transparent registry, incoming applications were filtered by Vadym Melnyk, Head of the HR and Legal Support Sector.

The formal grounds for rejection reached procedural absurdity:

• Mass disqualifications due to the lack of the handwritten phrase "True to the original" on scanned documents sent by email (despite regulations establishing that original documents are verified directly by banking institutions prior to signing the contract).
• Rejection № 1349 dated October 2, 2026, citing the following reason: "the application does not indicate the candidate registry number"! An applicant was excluded because they failed to assign themselves a registration number that the OVA is legally mandated to maintain and assign!

Public outcry and legal appeals triggered immediate panic: the OVA, which had closed the application window on October 9, suddenly announced an emergency extension from October 28 to October 30, ostensibly to allow applicants to "correct deficiencies." This abrupt reversal represents a de facto admission of procedural failure and discrimination.

The Judicial Front: 62 Pages of Paperwork Instead of Transparent Lists

This backroom scheme has been challenged in court. Investigative journalist and 2014 IDP from Alchevsk, Serhii Stulov, filed an administrative lawsuit with the Dnipropetrovsk District Administrative Court (Case № 160/34036/26, Judge Nataliia Kaluhiina) demanding that Order № 452 and its state registration be declared unlawful and overturned.

The administration's response in court was telling. When instructed to present the full nominal list of candidates from non-competitive "Registry № 2" along with official commission minutes, OVA representatives filed 62 pages of internal guidelines, administrative regulations, and general boilerplate text, entirely concealing the actual list of beneficiaries allocated millions in public funds.

Why does the Lysychansk municipality openly broadcast names nationwide on YouTube, while the Luhansk Regional Administration conceals the nominal rosters of its Registry № 2 from the court? The reason is apparent: full disclosure risks revealing individuals closely connected to administrative offices.

What Lies Ahead?

Judge Kaluhiina declined the initial application for securing the claim, which aligns with standard wartime administrative court practice avoiding preliminary injunctions on public expenditures. Crucially, however, the court explicitly noted in its ruling that the legality of Order № 452 and the presence of discriminatory provisions must be fully examined during the review of the case on its merits.

All procedural formal requirements have been satisfied by the plaintiff: additional court fees have been paid, the legal structure has been refined, and the lawsuit is set for the formal opening of proceedings.

Civil society demands a single standard from the Luhansk OVA: adherence to the same open rules applied by local communities. No secret non-competitive registries, no exclusion of 2014 IDPs, and complete transparency regarding 500 million UAH of public funds. The courtroom battle has begun.