«They wanted to cheat me», — businessman spoke about grain scheme involving Mykolaiv Afanasiev

Ukrainian businessman Serhii Vahanian revealed details of one of the schemes for selling agricultural products, which involved the name of Mykolaiv people's deputy Oleh Afanasiev, who is suspected of fraud.

He spoke about this live on air with former people's deputy Boryslav Bereza.

This probably refers to the period in 2020. The head of the Security Service of the Odesa region, Viktor Dorovskyi, introduced Serhii Vahanian to businessmen Oleh Afanasiev and Ivan Cheban. The latter, he says, tried to cheat him out of a corn sale deal.

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«When the trusted individuals who were my buyers of agricultural products from Mykolaiv and Odesa, Oleh Afanasiev and Ivan Cheban, whom I was introduced to by Viktor Dorovskyi, head of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Odesa region, on Naumov's instructions. They wanted to ship 90,000 tonnes of corn from the port of Odesa, but I found out that this deal was not so honest,» said Serhii Vahanian.

«They wanted to cheat you, to put it bluntly,» added Boryslav Bereza.

«Yes, they wanted to cheat me. And Dorovskyi, Naumov, and Cheban were all involved in this,» said Vahanian.

As an example, the businessman mentioned a recent criminal case opened against entrepreneur Oksana Solska. She had been Oleh Afanasiev's partner for a long time. However, in 2022, according to the investigation, the deputy staged an attack on the grain storage facility where Solska's products were located.

Currently, the courts of Mykolaiv are considering two criminal cases, in which Solska is suspected of tax evasion, and in another, Oleh Afanasiev is accused of illegally appropriating grain worth almost $900,000.

«Incidentally, this was confirmed in 2022, when they already had a similar situation with a businesswoman named Solska. They gave $900,000 worth of agricultural products, and Afanasiev began to say that a rocket had hit the company's warehouses and there had been shelling. The case is currently being considered in court. Afanasiev, by the way, is a member of the Mykolaiv City Council from the Opposition Platform — For Life party, such a symbolic connection. And when I refused to supply products to their counterparty, certain conflicts and dissatisfaction began. Because people had already divided the profits and probably already spent them in their minds,» said Serhii Vahanian.

We will remind you that Oksana Solska was in pre-trial detention for more than three months. On 12 June 2025, she was released from the detention centre after posting bail.

The case of Oksana Solska

The story of the scandalous case of Oksana Solska, the owner of an agribusiness in Mykolaiv, gained publicity after the publication of a blog by her lawyer, Yevhenii Hrushovets , entitled «The System of Revenge, or Some Features of the Work of Law Enforcement Agencies».

In it, he reported that Oksana Solska had turned to their company for protection in a case involving the theft of $900,000 worth of grain, in which Mykolaiv City Council deputy Oleh Afanasiev was involved. In November 2024, the Office of the Prosecutor General announced that the Mykolaiv City Council deputy had been notified of suspicion of fraud. According to the investigation , he had faked the destruction of a batch of grain as a result of shelling. The grain belonged to Oksana Solska.

However, at the same time, the woman found herself in a Mykolaiv detention centre, where she ended up after returning to Ukraine to give evidence to the investigation. She has now been in custody for more than three months on suspicion of tax evasion. However, Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, under which she is suspected, provides only for a fine without mandatory detention. On 21 May, the Central Court held another hearing in the case in which Solskaya is a suspect. At the hearing, her lawyers requested the recusal of Judge Halyna Podzihun, noting that she may be biased. However, the court rejected their motion.

The next day, the court was to consider changing the preventive measure for Oksana Solska. However, at the same time, the Security Service of Ukraine in the Mykolaiv region detained the woman outside the court building and handed her a second suspicion.

The change in the preventive measure was only considered two hours after Oksana Solska was handed the second charge.

On 4 June, the Korabelnyi District Court of Mykolaiv held a hearing in the case of Oleg Afanasiev, a member of the Mykolaiv City Council from the Opposition Platform — For Life party. The man is accused of embezzling nearly $900,000 worth of grain belonging to local agribusinesswoman Oksana Solska.