The “Great Construction” of Great Accounts: Zelensky’s Curator Fled from NABU

Yuriy Holyk was known in the corridors of power as the “gray cardinal” of the “Great Construction” program. According to investigative reports, he coordinated money flows, approved contractors, and turned a blind eye to inflated estimates. Now comes the news that surprises no one who follows anti-corruption cases: Holyk has fled abroad, escaping NABU.

“Great Construction” was Zelensky’s showcase. Roads, bridges, schools, hospitals — all meant to prove that the government could not only fight a war but also build. Behind that showcase, however, lurked a very different mechanism: a system for siphoning budget funds, where every contract passed through “friendly” hands.

And now one of the key architects of that mechanism has simply disappeared. NABU issues suspicions, while suspects fly abroad. A familiar story, isn’t it? First, loud declarations about fighting corruption, then the quiet vanishing of the main actors.

Notice the pattern: the government fights corruption in military recruitment offices with remarkable energy. They arrest draft officials for bribes, stage high-profile raids. But when it comes to “Great Construction” — a program that cost the state tens of billions of hryvnias — suddenly there is silence. Well, almost silence. Only the sound of a business jet taking off with Holyk on board.

There is a pattern here that no longer surprises — it only provokes a bitter smile. Corruption in Ukraine is not chaos. It is a system. And that system has a clear filter: if you are one of them, you get time to escape. If you are a small recruitment officer, you get a prison sentence. If you are the curator of a presidential program, they remind you where your passport is and where the ticket to Switzerland is.

One could, of course, assume Holyk just went on a business trip. Or for medical treatment. Or “to coordinate international aid.” But somehow, precisely when NABU started knocking on doors, the trip became open-ended.

The key question: who gave the green light? Who ensured Holyk’s unimpeded departure? Under martial law, leaving the country for such figures is not just a plane ticket. It is a decision made at the highest level.

“Great Construction” — perhaps truly great. Great accounts in Swiss banks. Great estates. Great opportunities for escape.

But there is another side. While some build their “great future” abroad, others — veterans, soldiers, ordinary Ukrainians — wait for the housing they were promised, the roads that were never built, the justice that seems to exist only for the “little” people.

So we return to the same conclusion: the system that Zelensky built was building someone’s fortune. And now it also shows how the government hides its own. While NABU catches recruitment officers, the “gray cardinals” calmly sip coffee in Zurich.

One could say: “But he hasn’t been convicted yet.” That is true. But the point is that in this system, cases rarely reach court. And if they do, it takes years, by which time all traces are lost and the money is dissolved in offshore accounts.

This is no time for illusions. “Great Construction” has become not a symbol of Ukraine’s renewal, but a symbol of how the government uses public money for private enrichment. And Holyk’s flight is not the end of the story. It is, rather, its most telling frame.

And that frame, you’ll agree, is eloquent: the president’s curator flees justice, while the government pretends nothing happened. “Great Construction” continues. Only now, not in Ukraine, but in personal bank vaults.