"It's a Miracle": Head of Luhansk Regional Administration Defends Housing Millions for Subordinate's Son and Contradicts His Own Rules

On September 24, 2026, Oleksiy Kharchenko, Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration (OVA), held an online press conference. The event, intended to address scrutiny regarding the distribution of hundreds of millions of hryvnias allocated for internally displaced persons (IDPs), exposed administrative inconsistencies and regulatory contradictions within the leadership.

When the moderator read an inquiry regarding why the previous selection favored Artem Kushelev (the son of Albina Kusheleva, the head of the Mass Communications Department indicted for corruption), Yana Osadcha (deputy editor of Reaľna Gazeta), and Yana Polishchuk (a former employee of ARMA and the prosecutor's office), the regional chief attributed the outcome to chance:

"In fact, the phrase 'in a strange way' is very accurate, because a lottery is, essentially, that very miracle. We cannot discriminate against individuals simply because they work for the administration or the prosecutor's office... We deliberately and consciously entrusted the selection to Derzhmolodzhytlo so that we would have no ability to influence it," stated Oleksiy Kharchenko.

A 400-Million UAH "Miracle" with 50% Debt Relief

Attempting to characterize the allocation of preferential state-backed loans as an unassisted mathematical fluke is directly undermined by official correspondence issued by Kharchenko's own administration.

According to the official response from the Department for Reintegration and Recovery of the Luhansk OVA (Letter № 1410/02.01-16 dated September 22, 2026):

• Total regional budget expenditures under the Program reached 401,710,300 UAH.
• Selection winners did not simply receive reduced interest rates; they were awarded non-repayable budget cancellations covering 50% to 99.5% of the principal loan amount at the expense of regional taxpayers.
• For Artem Kushelev (who qualified under the baseline tier of Subparagraph 4, Paragraph 8 of the Procedure), the regional budget covered 50% of the loan principal. Of the 2,318,875 UAH disbursed by the Treasury (Transaction № 320005360), more than 1.15 million UAH represented an outright, non-repayable subsidy from the OVA.
• Under this exact baseline category, 127 individuals/families were funded (including Yana Osadcha with a transaction of 2,176,432 UAH and state registrar Yana Polishchuk with 2,366,894 UAH).

Concurrently, only three large families were approved for funding across the entire region.

Kharchenko's claim that the OVA possessed "no mechanism to influence the process" is contradicted by the record: the administration's Housing and Communal Services Department compiled and transferred the closed "Register № 2" containing 508 candidates to Derzhmolodzhytlo on November 21, 2025. Furthermore, Protocol № 1 of November 24, 2025, bears Oleksiy Kharchenko's personal signature, endorsing results where candidates had differing probability parameters (Weight: 1, 2, or blank).

Contradictions Over Email Submission Timestamps

Contradictions deepened concerning the newly announced selection launched on September 22, 2026 (Order № 452).

The official public notice stated that applications had to be submitted to zhytlo@loga.gov.ua, stipulating that "only the application received first will be reviewed, based on queue order and timestamp, while all subsequent applications will not be considered." Selection was explicitly linked to the exact millisecond of transmission.

However, during the press conference, when questioned regarding administrative oversight of the inbox and whether system logs would be published to rule out retroactive manual entries, the OVA head contradicted the written rules:

"Submission time does not determine any queue priority. Everyone who applies within the established timeframe will participate in the program... provided they meet the criteria," Kharchenko asserted.

This statement creates significant regulatory uncertainty, as the verbal instructions given by the regional executive contradict the legally binding procedure registered with the Ministry of Justice.

The 116-Loan Cap: Administrative Hurdles for IDPs

For 2026, the OVA plans to fund approximately 116 loan agreements. Kharchenko confirmed that if released prisoners of war and disabled combat veterans submit sufficient applications, they will consume the entire funding pool, leaving all other categories without assistance.

Furthermore, administrative barriers continue to complicate registration for regular applicants:

1. Exclusion of Digital Attestation: Kharchenko and Department Head Lyudmyla Didenko confirmed that supporting documents cannot be certified using standard qualified electronic signatures (QES). Each page of an applicant's passport or identification records must feature a handwritten endorsement stating "Certified Copy", an ink signature, the date, and the applicant's full name. Minor clerical variations or cropped page edges result in administrative disqualification.
2. Territorial Exclusion: Program eligibility remains restricted to IDPs registered in four districts occupied in 2014 (Luhansk, Alchevsk, Dovzhansk, and Rovenky). Displaced persons from Sievierodonetsk, Popasna, Kreminna, Rubizhne, and Lysychansk—who fled during the 2022 full-scale invasion—remain ineligible for regional budget support.

While municipal administrations like Kreminna (which allocated 30.6M UAH to co-finance 50% of 26 homes) and Lysychansk (covering up to 99.99% of loan obligations for residents over 60) provide direct non-repayable aid, the Luhansk Regional Military Administration continues to allocate regional public funds through non-transparent procedures, framing the concentration of benefits among connected individuals as a "miracle".