V’iacheslav Huz, head of the Central Interregional Office of the State Migration Service of Ukraine in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast, officially earns no more than 60,000 UAH per month. Yet, he somehow manages to drive luxury cars, live in elite residential complexes in the capital, take his girlfriend, model Inna Hudz, on vacations abroad, and attend lavish parties hosted by his friend, russian oligarch Pavlo Fuks.
Back when he led the Migration Service in Kharkiv, Huz was accused of profiting from issuing international passports. Now, under his leadership, the Kyiv Migration Service is reportedly issuing passports and residence permits in Ukraine to russian criminal figures.
How Dmytro Lemesh, V’iacheslav Huz’s Deputy, Was Caught Taking Bribes for Issuing Ukrainian Documents to Russians
In summer 2022, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) caught Dmytro Lemesh, deputy head of the Central Interregional Office of the State Migration Service in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast, while taking a $10,000 bribe. According to the investigation, Lemesh regularly accepted illegal payments from russians and citizens of the Middle East and Central Asia to help them obtain legal status in Ukraine.
The SBU suspected that some of them could have been recruited by russian security services to carry out subversive activities in Ukraine.

When the SBU searched Dmytro Lemesh’s home, they found over $100,000 and nearly €13,000 in cash. The court set his bail at 2.5 million UAH, which Lemesh, despite his modest salary, quickly paid and was released during the investigation. In the end, Lemesh faced no consequences. Two years later, prosecutors closed the case due to the expiration of the investigation period. The SBU never brought the case to court, and Lemesh was refunded the 2.5 million UAH he paid as bail. As a result, Dmytro Lemesh, who may have assisted russian security services during the war against Ukraine, remained untouched and continues to work as Deputy Head of the Migration Service in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast.
This raises two key questions: who helped Lemesh avoid punishment? And could he have taken bribes without his boss knowing?
Is V’iacheslav Huz Selling Ukrainian Passports to Russian Criminal Figures?
Oblast is V’iacheslav Huz. Both he and Dmytro Lemesh come from Kharkiv. Until 2018, V’iacheslav Huz led the Main Department of the State Migration Service in Kharkiv Oblast, while Dmytro Lemesh served as his deputy, managing the department for foreigners and stateless persons. It’s evident that they worked closely together in Kharkiv and that Lemesh is not just a random colleague for Huz.
In Kharkiv, even then, Dmytro Lemesh caught the attention of anti-corruption watchdogs. Despite earning only 150,000 UAH a year, he managed to buy a brand-new Toyota Camry worth 1 million UAH, an expensive Romain Jerome watch, cryptocurrency, and even received cash gifts totaling 300,000 UAH.
V’iacheslav Huz wasn’t far behind. He became head of the Kharkiv Migration Service in 2014, a turbulent year, while also serving as a member of the Kharkiv City Council from Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna Party. His ties to the party and close connection to its leader — whom Huz famously greeted with white roses outside a hospital — may have been the key to his appointment.

By 2015, local activists in Kharkiv from the organization “All-Ukrainian League of Lawyers Against Corruption” were openly speaking out about widespread corruption in the Migration Service. The Migration Service had been “taken over” by dozens of intermediary firms, charging fees for expedited processing of international passports, residence permits, citizenship, and more. One activist even took Huz to court after the Kharkiv Migration Service refused to issue him a passport for the legally set fee of 170 UAH, instead pushing him to use intermediary services. The activist won the case, and Huz was fined 12,180 UAH.
And let’s be honest, the fine was insignificant compared to how much Huz likely made from systematically selling Migration Service “services” for processing documents. But this, it seems, is just the tip of the iceberg.
Issuing international passports can be a profitable business, and judging by V’iacheslav Huz’s actual financial standing, it’s clear he’s been cashing in on it. But we’ll get to that later. The real money for migration officials comes from legalizing foreigners — and Dmytro Lemesh is proof of that.
Media reports suggest the legalization scheme works as follows: The Migration Service initially denies Ukrainian passports to russian citizens. In response, the applicants sue the Migration Service, and courts rule in their favor, ordering the passports to be issued. Instead of appealing these decisions, the Migration Service complies, granting Ukrainian citizenship to russians. This allows officials to avoid direct accountability, claiming they were simply following court orders.
This is exactly how a Ukrainian passport under the name Kovalenko Andrian Mykhailovych ended up in the hands of Andrian Rodin, a russian crime boss known as “Poluzver,” a member of the Rostov gang led by Did Khasan, who has close ties to putin. According to Bihus.info, Rodin once housed Dmytro Tyshlek, Deputy Head of Ukraine’s National Police, in his residence. Similarly, another member of this gang, Nodari Asoyan, is currently suing the State Migration Service to obtain Ukrainian citizenship using the same scheme.
The investigative outlet “Mezha” released a video that reportedly shows V’iacheslav Huz, the head of the Migration Service in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast. In the footage, he appears to be using drugs and says:
When I moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv for work, a ‘vor’ told me, ‘If anything happens, if I somehow end up in prison, just say you’re from me.’ I’ve made so many documents for them that if this ever gets out, I’ll definitely be representing him… If he’s ready with 150,000 (likely dollars — ed.), I’ll set everything up for him. We’ll gather his relatives’ data and proceed with the standard procedure, submitting it through a ‘hamster.
In the video, the person resembling V’iacheslav Huz talks about providing Ukrainian documents to criminal figures for money. He also describes a scheme involving the civil registry office (RATS), where fake individuals are added to the database as relatives of applicants. These “relatives” are then used as a reason to issue a residence permit or even a passport.
The Unified State Register of Court Decisions shows multiple lawsuits against Kyiv’s Migration Service, led by V’iacheslav Huz. In these cases, applicants claim they want to give up their russian passports but cannot because the russian embassy in Ukraine isn’t functioning, and traveling to russia is not an option. As a result, courts order V’iacheslav Huz to issue Ukrainian documents to these individuals.
According to media reports, Huz has already issued a Ukrainian passport to Salikh Hasanov, a member of Did Khasan’s criminal gang, who is on the National Security and Defense Council’s sanctions list. Under his new Ukrainian documents, he is now known as Oleksandr Musolimovych Artemov, effectively bypassing any issues with the NSDC.
Additionally, Ukrainian documents were issued by Kyiv’s Migration Service to Anna Volodymyrivna Yevseyeva, a Crimean listed in the Myrotvorets database. Yevseyeva collaborated with russian occupiers and assisted them in organizing so-called “elections.” Another russian who Huz helped legalize in Ukraine is Oleksandr Yuriyovych Yashin, formerly known as Shchiptsov, a member of the russian drug syndicate Khimprom. And these are just a few examples.
We cannot say with 100% certainty that the video published by “Mezha,” featuring someone who closely resembles V’iacheslav Huz, is authentic. However, what’s telling is that Huz has neither denied nor refuted the claims. Journalists gave him multiple opportunities to respond, submitting official inquiries to the Migration Service under his leadership. He ignored every request. It seems he simply has nothing to say in his defense.
How Can V’iacheslav Huz Afford Kyiv’s Priciest Apartments and Luxury Cars?
Huz’s lifestyle also raises questions, as it doesn’t align with his official income as a State Migration Service employee. By title, he is a government employee with a modest salary and owns only a 113-square-meter apartment in Kharkiv. From 2018 to today, his salary ranged from 38,000 UAH in 2018 to 61,000 UAH per month in 2023. For someone living in Kyiv, especially as a non-local, this income barely covers living expenses, let alone rent and other costs.
Huz currently rents an 87-square-meter apartment in Kyiv from Tetiana Viktorivna Pakhomova. However, the rental amount is not disclosed in his financial declaration. What’s notable is that Tetiana Pakhomova is Huz’s niece. The apartment, located in the elite residential complex “Jack House” on Lesi Ukrainky Boulevard, 7V, is worth approximately $2,000 per square meter, meaning the total value of the property could be around $174,000.
This raises further questions, considering Pakhomova’s parents are ordinary doctors. Her mother, Alina Pakhomova, is an associate professor at the Kharkiv Medical Academy and a pediatric ophthalmologist at the university’s clinic. Her father, Viktor Pakhomov, is a trauma surgeon and orthopedist.

According to BlackBox OSINT, the apartment wasn’t received directly by Tetiana Pakhomova in 2018, but by her legal representative, Volodymyr Mykolaiovych Starikov, as Pakhomova was already living in Boston, USA, at the time. In addition to the apartment, Starikov also represented Pakhomova in the purchase of a 9.5-square-meter non-residential unit in the same Jack House complex, priced at $14,250.
Let’s take a closer look at Volodymyr Starikov. His phone number in the GetContact app is associated with several tags directly linking him to V’iacheslav Huz. These include “Volodymyr Huz’s driver”, “Vova Kharkiv Migration Office security” and “Vova driver for Slava and Inna”. Based on these tags, it seems Volodymyr Starikov was not only Huz’s driver but possibly also employed as security personnel at the Kharkiv Migration Service.
What a picture: the daughter of doctors, studying and working in the U.S., buys an apartment worth nearly $200,000 in an elite residential complex in central Kyiv. However, the purchase is handled by her uncle’s driver, Volodymyr Starikov, and Huz ends up living in the apartment, supposedly renting it for an undisclosed amount. We suggest that V’iacheslav Huz is the true owner of the apartment, while his niece is likely just a name on paper. A relative with a different last name — how convenient.
In 2021, another representative, Hlib Nenko—who has close ties to Volodymyr Starikov and, by extension, V’iacheslav Huz—planned to buy another apartment for Tetiana Pakhomova. This time, it was in the luxurious Taryan Towers residential complex in Kyiv’s Pechersk district. However, the deal fell through for unknown reasons. Still, a notarized power of attorney from Pakhomova to Nenko clearly stated the purpose: “to purchase an apartment in Taryan Towers.” This indicates that at least $300,000 was meant to be funneled through real estate under the name of someone who doesn’t even live in Kyiv or Ukraine.
The story with his niece’s apartment isn’t the only questionable case linked to Huz. It wasn’t even his first “rented” property. When he moved to Kyiv in 2018, he began renting a large 133-square-meter apartment in the Izumrudny residential complex on General Shapoval Street, 2. The apartment belonged to Yulia Kliuchko, co-owner of the online clothing store JUL & JUL. She had purchased it in October 2018, and Huz became her first tenant immediately after. Based on the property prices in this complex at the time, the apartment’s value was likely around $300,000.

Kyiv’s chief migration officer, V’iacheslav Huz, also rented an Audi A8 from Yulia Kliuchko. The 2012 model, worth around $55,000, was purchased by Kliuchko in October 2019. Shortly after the purchase, she leased it to Huz, as it appeared in his declaration that same year. Interesting, isn’t it? A model with a small business spends about $350,000 within a year on a luxury apartment in an elite residential complex and a high-end car, only to rent them both to Huz. One can only imagine the kind of relationship they shared for such arrangements to make sense.
Considering that Huz split up with his common-law wife, Kateryna Polezhaieva, in 2018, it’s possible that Yulia Kliuchko was his girlfriend at the time, acting as a front for assets he couldn’t openly declare.
Before the Audi A8, Huz reportedly used a 2017 Mercedes-Benz GLE 250, according to BlackBox OSINT. The car was driven by his driver, Volodymyr Starikov, who had accompanied Huz from Kharkiv. This vehicle, purchased brand-new for $80,000, was registered under Tetiana Hryitchina, a 58-year-old entrepreneur officially listed as a cleaner.
Tetiana Hryitchina is the mother of Viktoriia Hryitchina, who has worked since 2015 as Deputy Head of the Citizenship, Passport, Registration, and Immigration Department at the State Migration Service in Kharkiv. In other words, she was subordinate to V’iacheslav Huz. It seems likely that she was another close associate of Huz, used as a front for his assets.
Despite her modest salary of 7,600 UAH per month at the time, Viktoriia Hryitchina was driving a 2015 LEXUS NX300H worth around $50,000. That car, too, was registered under her mother’s name. Quite impressive wealth for the mother of a mid-level official.
Remember the saying, “Once is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern”? The pattern here is that throughout his career at the State Migration Service, V’iacheslav Huz, who officially owns nothing, has consistently rented apartments and cars without ever disclosing the cost of these rentals. Each time, the legitimacy of these “rentals” raises more questions than answers.
In 2020, Huz rented another car, a 2012 Audi A8, from Viktor Viktorovych Tokarenko. By 2023, he switched to a 2008 Subaru Outback, with Tokarenko once again listed as the provider. It’s almost as if Tokarenko runs his own private car dealership.
But that’s not all. In his 2022 declaration, Huz listed a Toyota Land Cruiser 200 from 2008, which he claimed to be using for free. So, who is this generous benefactor? The vehicle belongs to the public organization “Defender 2022.” From the day it was founded on September 6, 2022, until February 2024, the head of this organization was… you guessed it, V’iacheslav Huz.
According to our sources, this vehicle was imported into Ukraine duty-free under simplified procedures, likely as humanitarian aid for military purposes, and was registered on September 13, 2022. In other words, just one week after Huz registered the organization, he brought the car into Ukraine as “humanitarian aid,” which ended up benefiting… himself.
Notably, there’s no public information about any actual charitable activities by “Defender 2022.” So, the organization may have been set up solely to enable schemes like importing cars as “humanitarian aid” or other questionable activities.


The overall picture is clear: V’iacheslav Huz has been living in expensive apartments in elite Kyiv residential complexes and driving luxury cars worth millions of dollars. Based on the facts presented, it resembles a scheme to launder undeclared income — something that, as we’ve seen, isn’t too difficult to obtain in the Migration Service.

How Did V’iacheslav Huz’s Relationship with Model Inna Hudz Contribute to Her Financial Success?
An example of this is the financial growth of V’iacheslav Huz’s current partner, Ukrainian model Inna Hudz, with whom he has been in a relationship since around 2020. Before russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the couple went on several luxurious trips abroad. They welcomed New Year 2021 in the Dominican Republic, spent May holidays in Dubai, vacationed for two weeks in Bodrum, Turkey, in August 2021, and later visited France and Switzerland in September. All of this, either on Huz’s monthly salary of 43,000 UAH or covered by Hudz herself, thanks to her modeling earnings.

It seems that the same modeling fees helped Inna Hudz acquire a 55-square-meter apartment in the luxury “Boulevard of Fountains” residential complex on Sapernе Pole Street 5 in Kyiv’s Pecherskyi district. She purchased the property on November 9, 2020, shortly after beginning her relationship with Vyacheslav Huz, for no less than $230,000. A year later, in 2021, Hudz became the owner of a brand-new 2021 Volkswagen Passat worth $45,000. By 2022, she also acquired a parking space in the same residential complex, valued between $28,000 and $45,000.
Vyacheslav Huz did not report any of this, even though he is legally required to. Since he and Inna Hudz live together, he should have included her assets in his financial records. However, doing so would ruin the image he presents in his declaration, where he claims to be just a regular official with a modest salary and rented belongings.
Friendship with Oligarch Pavlo Fuks: Is Huz Connected to His Anti-Ukrainian Activities?
Huz and Hudz took another trip together during martial law in Ukraine. On October 24, 2022, they crossed the Polish border and flew to the UK, returning on November 6. It’s unclear how Huz was allowed to leave the country, but reports from BlackBox OSINT reveal they attended a birthday party in London hosted by Pavlo Fuks, a russian-Ukrainian oligarch under NSDC sanctions.
This wasn’t the first time Huz and Hudz were seen at Fuks’ events. In October 2021, before the full-scale war, they attended Fuks’ extravagant birthday party in Kozyn near Kyiv, where russian performers Artur Pirozhkov and Svitlana Loboda entertained the guests. During the event, Huz, visibly drunk, admitted to journalist Mykhailo Tkach that he was friends with Fuks.
It’s unclear under what circumstances Huz and Fuks became friends, but it’s possible their connection began over Fuks’ legalization in Ukraine. Fuks moved to Ukraine in 2014, during the time Huz was heading the Migration Service in Kharkiv. Considering that Kharkiv native Pavlo Fuks was a close friend of the late Kharkiv mayor Hennadiy Kernes, their connection may have been established through him.
Western media, including Rolling Stone, reported that Pavlo Fuks was involved in creating pro-russian propaganda in Kharkiv before the full-scale invasion. Allegedly, Fuks paid locals $500 to $1,500 through intermediaries to spray Nazi symbols on buildings. This was meant to help russia justify its invasion by spreading the false claim that Ukraine was overrun with Nazis. According to the reports, Fuks may have agreed to this under pressure from the fsb, which threatened to strip him of his assets in the region if he refused.
Fuks has faced accusations of collaborating with the kremlin before. He has been linked to schemes that helped viktor yanukovych’s associates funnel money out of Ukraine. Investigations by Schemy also revealed that Fuks still has business interests in russia, reportedly connected to Andriy Portnov, a controversial figure under U.S. sanctions.
Does Vyacheslav Huz’s connection with Pavlo Fuks go beyond friendship? Could it be “professional,” involving the legalization of russian agents in Ukraine? Given the allegations about the Kyiv Migration Service assisting russian citizens and criminals, it’s fair to ask if Huz is involved in supporting Fuks’s suspected links to russian intelligence. These are questions the Security Service of Ukraine should investigate.
As for whether Huz profits from selling Migration Service “services” and helping foreigners legalize their status in Ukraine, the answer seems clear.
To add to this, we’ve included screenshots of comments Huz left under a Telegram post accusing him of selling Ukrainian passports to russian criminals, possibly linked to russian intelligence. Instead of denying the claims, Huz used foul language and made threats — an interesting response.
