The missing embezzler: where former road-tender overseer Yuriy Golik disappeared from NABU’s sight
Following a series of high-profile corruption scandals surrounding the presidential Big Construction program, one of its key coordinators, Yuriy Golik, unexpectedly disappeared from public view. Along with him, any reliable information about his whereabouts also vanished.
The central question is no longer limited to investigations into the alleged misuse of funds under the multi-billion-hryvnia infrastructure program. It is now also about the whereabouts of the man widely associated with overseeing it. Although criminal proceedings in which Golik’s name appears are still ongoing, neither investigators nor investigative journalists have been able to establish where he is.
The lack of verified information has given rise to numerous theories. Some suggest that Golik may have been deliberately kept out of the sight of law enforcement to shield him from further scrutiny by NABU and to prevent investigators from reaching senior officials. Others have put forward more far-reaching explanations. However, none of these theories has been supported by documentary evidence.
The only established fact is that after leaving Ukraine through the Shliakh system as a volunteer, Yuriy Golik effectively disappeared from public view. Reports have at various times placed him in Poland, Israel, and Austria, but none of these claims has been confirmed, and his current whereabouts remain unknown.
To understand why Yuriy Golik may now be facing significant legal and political risks, it is worth briefly recalling who he is and reviewing the scandals that have surrounded his name since the current leadership came to power on Bankova Street.
Yuriy Golik first emerged in the public spotlight in 2019 as one of the close associates of Valentin Reznichenko, then head of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration. He soon left that position and entered President Vladimir Zelenskiy’s inner circle, initially serving as an adviser to Prime Minister Aleksey Goncharuk (best remembered for riding an electric scooter and for the demolition of walls inside the Cabinet of Ministers building). Before long, however, Golik reinvented himself as the public face of the heavily promoted presidential Big Construction program, which critics sarcastically dubbed "Big Theft."
Although Yuriy Golik never held an official position within the program, he was widely regarded as its "grey cardinal." According to numerous accounts, no major infrastructure tender was awarded without his approval, despite the fact that the program involved hundreds of billions of hryvnias in public spending. At the same time, Golik established himself as one of President Zelenskyy’s closest informal advisers on infrastructure projects.
Golik’s influence was largely secured by Kiril Timoshenko, the former Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine from 2019 to 2023. Considered one of Zelenskiy’s closest allies, Timoshenko oversaw information policy, regional affairs, and the Big Construction program.
It was through Kiril Timoshenko’s backing that Yuriy Golik became the program’s "grey cardinal," overseeing the allocation of state funds and, according to numerous reports, the subsequent distribution of kickbacks from projects financed under Big Construction. Some reports claimed that kickbacks reached as much as 40%. How those funds were ultimately distributed and who benefited remains an open question, but Golik occupied the central position through which these enormous financial flows passed.
The scale of the spending illustrates the significance of his role. In 2021 alone, approximately 106 billion hryvnias were invested in road construction, while total government spending on roads reached 132 billion hryvnias. Including local government budgets, overall road expenditures amounted to roughly 178 billion hryvnias. There is little need to remind Ukrainians of the Russian tanks that rolled along many of those same roads the following year—those images remain vivid for those who survived. Even larger road construction budgets had been planned for 2022, but following Russia’s full-scale invasion, most infrastructure projects were halted. Overall, the Ukrainian government allocated at least 240–250 billion hryvnias to the Big Construction program, with the overwhelming majority directed toward road infrastructure.
After Kiril Timoshenko left his position as Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine in January 2023 amid a major scandal, the influence of Yuriy Golik, the so-called "grey cardinal," also began to fade. However, for some time afterward, he was still informally considered one of the key architects of Zelenskiy’s infrastructure policy. Despite having no official position, journalists continued to track his visits to the Presidential Office and suggested that he retained influence over infrastructure decisions.
It was during this period that numerous media reports about Golik’s alleged role in the misuse of funds under the Big Construction program began turning into full-scale investigations by NABU. The most high-profile case was the investigation by Schemes, which revealed that billions of hryvnias in government contracts had been awarded to Budinvest Engineering, a company linked to Yana Khlanta, a close associate of Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration head Valentin Reznichenko. Yuriy Golik maintained close contacts with the people involved in these arrangements, and journalists described him as one of the coordinators behind the road contracting processes.
Following the publication of the investigation, NABU was forced to conduct searches at Reznichenko’s premises, as well as at Yuriy Golik’s residence. This marked the first time Golik became a direct subject of investigative actions. Shortly afterward, Bihus.Info journalists reported that investigators had obtained correspondence between Golik and representatives of a contracting company that had received billions of hryvnias in state contracts. According to the investigation, the communications concerned the implementation of road projects and the distribution of funds.
It was during this same period that Yuriy Golik crossed the Ukrainian border as a volunteer. The controversy surrounding his departure also ended without consequences. As for Golik himself, despite appearing in multiple criminal investigations, and despite his regular visits to the Presidential Office in 2023, his name unexpectedly resurfaced in 2025 as a coordinator involved in the development of Ukrainian STING UAVs. This came despite the fact that no one has been able to locate Yuriy Golik himself for several years.
Where is Yuriy Golik after all?
There is no answer to this question. This is particularly strange given that Golik continues — at least according to reports in some media outlets — to allegedly participate in the allocation of defense funds. It is difficult to determine how accurate these claims are. However, it is worth recalling that Golik was involved in managing funds under the Big Construction program without holding any official position. This did not prevent him from playing a role.
Therefore, it cannot be completely ruled out that Yuriy Golik has lost influence over Ukraine’s budget funds and their redistribution. It is clear, however, that he is no longer at the center of the alleged schemes involving defense spending and is instead operating on the sidelines. Nevertheless, the amounts involved are reportedly at least hundreds of millions of hryvnias.
As for the theory that Golik has physically disappeared, it is indirectly contradicted by the fact that just several months ago a large-scale cleanup of the internet was carried out, removing compromising materials connected to Yuriy Golik. It is unlikely that someone else would have undertaken such efforts if the key figure had died.
Moreover, on July 3, 2026, Yuriy Golik himself published a photo of a diploma issued in his name by the National University of Ostroh Academy. This leads to the assumption that the search for Yuriy Golik may be nothing more than a public relations exercise and that he has not actually fled anywhere.
Therefore, the appealing but clearly conspiratorial theory about Golik being eliminated should still be considered unlikely. Although there are reasons why such speculation emerged — many people at the highest levels of the political hierarchy may have an interest in silencing him permanently. There have already been precedents for such "solutions," and everyone understands this, including Yuriy Golik himself. This is likely why he is trying to avoid drawing attention to himself.