Criminal Choir on Call: How Co-Opted Media Whitewash the Luhansk Administration’s 500M UAH Scheme

The anatomy of a coordinated leak across "IRTA-FAX," sd.ua, and "TRIBUN": Albina Kusheleva’s 80% kickbacks, HR proxy Vadym Melnyk, and the bureaucratic effort to shield Liudmyla Didenko from indictment.

When on a single day — October 28, 2026 — three regional online outlets ("IRTA-FAX," sd.ua, and "TRIBUN") simultaneously released identical articles citing an inquiry by Natalka Sokolenko, observers of investigative reporting recognize a textbook outsourced crisis PR operation.

Through misleading claims, these synchronized publications attempted to convince the public that the lawsuit filed in the Dnipropetrovsk District Administrative Court (Case No. 160/34036/26) by Alchevsk-born displaced person Serhii Stulov and the French human rights organization Association "DE L’AUTRE CÔTÉ DU DIALOGUE" constitutes a direct strike against large families.

However, cross-referencing this coordinated press release with the criminal records of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in proceeding ERDR 42026130000000016 reveals a different picture: the mobilization of a state-funded media cartel. This infrastructure operated on procurement tenders run by the Luhansk Regional State Administration's Department of Information Policy, retaining a 20% commission while an 80% cash kickback was shipped inside postal packages back to department leadership.

Today, this choir is tasked with damage control: whitewashing contested Decree No. 452 of September 16, 2026, undermining administrative litigation, and deflecting the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) from the administrator of the non-public housing registries: the Head of the Department for Reintegration and Recovery, Liudmyla Didenko.

Procurement Ties: The Mechanics of the Media Cartel

The institutional link between these regional outlets and ongoing criminal proceedings is established in public rulings from the Soborny District Court of Dnipro and the Dnipro Court of Appeal:

1. NGO "Vilny Skhid" and "IRTA-FAX":

The publisher and nominal beneficiary of "IRTA-FAX" is the non-governmental organization "Vilny Skhid" (EDRPOU Code 44726298). Case files (Case No. 201/13681/26) confirm that Department Director Albina Kusheleva recruited "Vilny Skhid" as an artificial competitor ("technical participant") for public procurement contract UA-2026-03-13-012479-a valued at 3.21 million UAH. NGO management received explicit instructions not to lower their bid during the electronic auction, maintaining an inflated price ceiling that secured the win for a predetermined sole proprietor.

2. ua and Subsidiary Networks:

The sd.ua portal and related messaging channels served as billing vehicles for Contract No. 7 executed on April 3, 2026. Investigators verified that routine press releases and official statements were billed at an inflated flat rate of 1,155 UAH per item, creating the required accounting margin for systematic cash extractions.

3. "TRIBUN" and "Realna Gazeta":

Media alignment was also maintained through direct material incentives. Official Letter No. 1410/02.01-16 issued by the Reintegration Department on September 22, 2026, confirmed that "Realna Gazeta" journalist Yana Osadcha was granted a non-repayable write-off of over 1.1 million UAH for her housing mortgage debt. This was funded using budget surpluses seized from the destroyed Lysychansk municipality through Liudmyla Didenko’s non-public "Registry No. 2".

With Albina Kusheleva currently facing prosecution under Part 4, Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (embezzlement in particularly large amounts, Case No. 201/13583/26, bail set at 266,240 UAH) and her deputy Andriy Zaitsev cooperating with state investigators regarding cash transfers shipped through "Nova Poshta" parcels, these media instruments were activated to defend the regional executive apparatus.

The Scapegoat Operation: Shielding Liudmyla Didenko

The primary objective of this coordinated media push is shielding the Head of the Reintegration Department, Liudmyla Didenko.

Her office disbursed 401.7 million UAH taken from the budget of Lysychansk without public competitive processes. Subsidized housing write-offs covering up to 99.5% of loan balances were granted to administration insiders, prosecutors, tax officials, and Albina Kusheleva’s son, Artem.

When procedural motions demanded the complete roster of recipients ("Appendix 2" to Letter No. 1410/02.01-16), regional leadership initiated an administrative stall:

• Coordinated Non-Disclosure: The Luhansk Regional State Administration (Letter No. 04/3-43/957) and the State Fund "Derzhmolodzhytlo" (Letter No. 1977/005) simultaneously issued identical notifications on October 9, 2026, extending public record response times by 20 business days to delay publication of the list.
• The Scapegoat Narrative: Concurrently, leaks emerged indicating that the former deputy head of the Construction Department, Mykola Levchenko, was under scrutiny for simple "official negligence" (Part 2, Article 367, Criminal Code of Ukraine) involving 28 million UAH on pre-war contracts. This lesser offense was spotlighted to divert attention from the intentional 401.7 million UAH misappropriation falling squarely under NABU’s jurisdiction. Omitted from these reports was the fact that under Governor Oleksiy Kharchenko’s Executive Order No. 110 of March 27, 2026, the Construction Department was abolished and merged into Liudmyla Didenko’s department, which officially assumed all its obligations, pending claims, and debt accounts.

The Proxy Filter: HR Official Vadym Melnyk

While media attention was diverted to Levchenko, the administration opened eligibility for its next funding cycle. Originally set at 350 million UAH, Governor Kharchenko expanded the program to 500 million UAH through Decree No. 516 on October 21, 2026.

This rapid expansion corresponds directly to Article 59 of the Draft State Budget Law of Ukraine for 2027, which mandates the clawback of all uncommitted special reserve balances from occupied territories back to central state funds by January 1, 2027.

To prevent independent IDP applicants from securing spots, a procedural barrier was introduced:

• Inquiries and initial registration files are channeled exclusively through an unmonitored mailbox: zhytlo@loga.gov.ua.
• Rejection notices do not bear Didenko's signature. Disqualifications are signed by the Head of the HR and Legal Support Sector, Vadym Melnyk.
• Documented Grounds for Rejection (Official Notice of October 7, 2026):

"...the application fails to provide the candidate registry registration number. Pursuant to paragraph eight, sub-clause 2, clause 14 of the Procedure... the applicant shall not be admitted to the candidate registry".

The logic is circular: an IDP submits an initial application to enter the registry, but HR official Melnyk disqualifies them on the grounds that they did not cite their registry entry number — a number that the regional administration has yet to issue.

Media Claims vs. Legal Realities

The articles published by "IRTA-FAX," sd.ua, and "TRIBUN" rely on specific misrepresentations:

1. The Large Family Distraction: Outlets claim the lawsuit challenging "Registry No. 2" harms large families (allocated only 39 million UAH for 2026). They omit that Lawsuit No. 160/34036/26 targets the structural validity of the regulation and seeks scrutiny of the 2025 closed payout registry totaling 401.7 million UAH, which was allocated to senior administration officials.
2. Exclusion of Post-2022 Displaced Persons: Media reports state Decree No. 452 is non-discriminatory. In fact, displaced persons from Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk, Popasna, Kreminna, and Rubizhne (the 2022 invasion wave) are systematically barred from accessing these regional housing funds, despite the capital having been transferred out of Lysychansk's municipal balance.
3. Misrepresenting the Ministry of Justice: Reports frame Letter No. 22798/25418/23/26/7 from the Kharkiv Regional Justice Directorate (October 6, 2026) as regulatory approval of the scheme. The document confirms receipt of complaints detailing the 401.7 million UAH disbursement, but the directorate declined to invalidate the registry, stating that auditing specific fiscal allocations falls exclusively within the purview of law enforcement agencies.

Official Admission: The Department's Disclosure

The narrative fell apart following an official records release by the administration itself.

On October 30, 2026, Acting Director of the Information Policy Department Roman Mamedov signed Response No. 04/3-43/1024 to a Freedom of Information request submitted on behalf of Association "DE L’AUTRE CÔTÉ DU DIALOGUE" by Serhii Stulov.

This formal government response documents three critical admissions:

• The workstation computer used by anti-corruption committee secretary Albina Kusheleva was officially seized by SBU investigators as physical evidence in an active criminal probe.
• Committee records and working minutes covering a two-year period are unavailable due to that workstation seizure.
• Over three years of operation, the "Transparency and Accountability" Working Group forwarded zero evidentiary files to law enforcement, asserting it never conducted reviews of Kusheleva’s 3.21 million UAH media procurement or Didenko’s 401.7 million UAH housing allocations on the grounds that these constituted "services and budget transfers".

However, attached to this formal admission, the department released the actual voting logs and meeting minutes spanning 448 certified pages.

In Part Two of this investigation, an audit of these 448 pages will present documentation of official forgery involving Governor Oleksiy Kharchenko, rebut the administration's claim regarding lost records, and detail the systematic suppression of institutional checks within the regional executive.