This is already the second series of materials within the project Stronger Together: Transparency and Anti-Corruption, where we gather publications created by the program’s participants.
The goal is to show how local media investigate issues within their communities and bring transparency back where it is lacking. Each investigation contains concrete facts, real stories, and attempts to find answers to questions that matter to the regions. The teams are supported by mentors in creating these materials.
Below is the second selection of published investigations from the project participants, sorted by publication date.
Chernihiv Media Group
How Much Do Chernihiv Telegram Channels Earn, Who Runs Them, and What They Publish
Team mentor: Nataliia Lazarovych, Bihus.Info
Publication date: October 10, 2025
According to analysts, Telegram is one of the most popular messengers in Ukraine. Millions of users across various countries trust it with their data and personal messages. But how safe is it — and what role do Russian intelligence services play here? The journalists set out to find out who stands behind Chernihiv’s Telegram channels, which have become a primary source of news for many residents. They monitored the content, explored advertising rates, estimated the potential monthly income, and explained what readers should do when they encounter obvious fakes or manipulative posts.
Why did they choose this topic? The team admits being genuinely irritated when local Telegram channels spread blatant fakes about the city — such as the story about a “200-year-old brick underground structure near a pipeline.” People believe, react, and keep sharing, since the ranking of the most popular social networks in Ukraine has remained nearly unchanged in recent years — with Telegram still on top.
Read the full investigation HERE
Odessa Life
Billions a Year: Why the Odesa Authorities Keep Residents Out of Budget Planning
Team mentor: Alisa Yurchenko, The Kyiv Independent
Publication date: October 16, 2025
The Odesa city authorities have yet to approve a mechanism that would allow residents to participate in the budgeting process. According to journalists, such a mechanism could help cut non-priority expenses during wartime and increase support for the military.
Over a year ago, Hennadii Trukhanov — the former mayor of Odesa, who was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship — held a roundtable with representatives of the local civic initiative «Money for the Armed Forces» and promised to implement their proposals «where possible». The group’s main demand was to increase the share of Odesa’s municipal budget allocated to support military personnel.
Since then, little has changed: every Saturday, activists continue to protest, arguing that the city authorities only partially meet their demands. For now, such demonstrations remain the only relatively effective way for Odesa residents to influence the city’s budgeting decisions. Thanks to this pressure, activists have managed to block several allocations for costly urban renovations during the full-scale war.
Vgoru
Business Trip to the Occupation: Who Headed the «Ministries» in Occupied Kherson Region in 2025
Team mentor: Nataliia Lazarovych, Bihus.Info
Publication date: October 22, 2025
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the occupiers have been systematically replacing legitimate Ukrainian authorities with their own. Initially, they «cloned» Ukrainian institutions and engaged locals to head various «departments» and «directorates». By late summer 2022, these bodies were restructured into «ministries», copying Russia’s model of governance. Increasingly, Moscow replaced local collaborators with officials from Russia or occupied Crimea, lured by lucrative positions in these illegal bodies.
Currently, there are 17 «ministries» operating in occupied Kherson region. Vgoru’s investigation focuses on the individuals who lead them in 2025 — either as «ministers» or acting heads. Are many of them local collaborators? Spoiler: no. Recent personnel changes reveal Moscow’s clear preference for Russians.
Intent
«Anubis» Cashes In: How Odesa Turns the Memory of Fallen Defenders into a Business
Team mentor: Nataliia Onysko, NGL.media
Publication date: October 23, 2025
Last year, Babel Street in Odesa was renamed in honor of fallen Ukrainian defender Dmytro Ivanov. At No. 12 on that street is the funeral agency «Anubis», owned by the Pestruiev family — well-known players in the city’s funeral services market. For years, the owners of «Anubis» profited, among other things, from installing headstones for soldiers who gave their lives for Ukraine.
Currently, the company’s activities are under investigation by law enforcement. The newsroom «Intent» looked into the details.
20 Hvylyn (Vinnytsia)
A Lexus for $700: How Vinnytsia City Council Deputies Managed to Buy Such Cheap Cars
Team mentor: Anastasiia Usenko, Bihus.Info
Publication date: October 27, 2025
Several deputies of the Vinnytsia City Council declared suspiciously cheap cars — vehicles whose declared value does not match their actual market price. Why? Each had their own explanation: some claimed they bought a damaged car “for repair,” others indicated a symbolic price during re-registration. And all this despite having quite decent official incomes.
So, could the reason be an attempt to conceal assets from the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP)? Or to avoid paying taxes? The newsroom’s journalists investigated the matter.
Ye.ua
My House Is on the Edge»: Why Historical Buildings Are Disappearing in Khmelnytskyi
Team mentor: Nataliia Onysko, NGL.media
Publication date: October 28, 2025
The central part of Khmelnytskyi is dotted with signs reading «City’s Historical Heritage». Yet behind this symbolism lies a largely legal void.
Today, the Khmelnytskyi Regional State Administration lists 105 potentially valuable historical buildings within the city. Officials have known about their potential cultural significance for at least 15 years. However, these architectural sites still have not been granted official heritage status.
Other historical buildings have been disappearing from the city’s streets without ever receiving even the status of «newly identified cultural heritage sites» — a classification that, although imperfect, provides some protection from illegal reconstruction or demolition.
Tochka Dostupu
«The House Belongs to His Mother, the Car to His Mother-in-Law, and the Land to His Wife»: What a Kropyvnytskyi Deputy “Forgot” to Declare
Team mentor: Nataliia Onysko, NGL.media
Publication date: October 30, 2025
Ihor Botnarenko, a deputy of the Kropyvnytskyi District Council from the Servant of the People party, presented the Order «For Courage» to the families of fallen soldiers from the Kirovohrad region three times within a single week in July this year. Posts about these ceremonies appeared on the official pages of the Sokolivska, Rivnianska, and Novomyrhorodska communities. However, this sparked outrage among residents of another community — Hannivska — where Botnarenko had previously worked as head of the legal department at the local council. While in that position, he was charged with extortion and bribery related to a road repair project in Hannivska community.
The newsroom «Tochka Dostupu» looked into this criminal case and unexpectedly discovered that Botnarenko should be of interest not only to the police but also to the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), as he fails to declare even half of the assets he actually uses. What exactly the deputy is hiding — find out in the investigation.
Skhidnyi variant
Donetsk Regional Administration Spent ₴25 Million on a Sanatorium Center Near the Frontline That Cannot Be Used
Team mentor: Alisa Yurchenko, The Kyiv Independent
Publication date: October 30, 2025
Over the past two years, ₴24.5 million have been spent on the reconstruction of the wellness center «Perlyna Donetchyny» («The Pearl of Donetsk Region») in Sviatohirsk — but the work was never completed due to the security situation.
The idea of restoring this facility in a frontline area drew public criticism from the very beginning, in autumn 2023. Time has proven that the concerns were justified.
The partially renovated sanatorium complex never reopened as a center for people in need of temporary housing. Meanwhile, nearly ₴25 million were paid to two contracting companies.
The newsroom «Skhidnyi Variant» investigated who signed these contracts, under what circumstances, and whether anyone will be held accountable for the waste of public funds.
18000
«Scheme Thinking»: How a “Gift” to the City Turned into a Present for the Inner Circle of Cherkasy’s City Hall
Team mentor: Maksym Opanasenko, Bihus.Info
Publication date: October 30, 2025
Once, a tobacco factory stood in the center of Cherkasy. Like many similar facilities across Ukraine, in the mid-2000s it became part of one of the global giants — the company «Japan Tobacco». However, after purchasing the asset, JT focused only on the equipment, which it soon relocated to another city. The building itself, which also came under the company’s ownership, was later donated to the city, with the transfer formally completed in 2011.
That same year, the agreement specified the only acceptable future use of the property. Then-mayor of Cherkasy, Serhii Odarych, pledged on behalf of the city to use the donated property exclusively for social, cultural, communal, and environmental purposes. And there was plenty of room to work with — nearly three hectares of land hosting tens of thousands of square meters of real estate.
At first, everything went well. The site housed a municipal Administrative Service Center, several volunteer hubs, and sports clubs and sections. The property remained in communal ownership — until 2023.
In the second year of the full-scale invasion, the city suddenly «forgot» about its agreement with the international company and decided to sell part of the former tobacco factory. Almost a thousand square meters of property and the land beneath it ended up in private hands. But how — and more importantly, whose hands?
The journalists of «18000» investigated it
4Vlada
Foreign Trips of Rivne City Councillors: Where They Went and Who Invited Them
Team mentor: Oleksandra Gubytska, NGL.media
Publication date: 31 October 2025
Fourth Estate looked into which members of the Rivne City Council travelled on official trips in 2023, 2024 and during the first half of 2025 — trips that, in the case of city councils, must be approved by the mayor.
It turned out that 19 out of 42 city councillors travelled abroad during this period. Some of them may have spent nearly four months a year outside the country. However, it is important to add that, according to responses from the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centre, all councillors — except for two, Mykola Blyashyn and Oleksandr Ivanov, who had official trips — have deferments, reservations, have been removed from military registration, or are not subject to mandatory mobilisation due to age or gender. In other words, even without holding a city council mandate, most of them would still have been eligible to travel abroad.
Poltava Wave
Culture in the Shadows: How Patriotism Is Used to Conceal Taxes on Million-Hryvnia Revenues
Team mentor: Maksym Opanasenko, Bihus.Info
Publication date: 1 November 2025
As is often the case, the problem with honest people is that they are honest — which means those running legitimate, transparent businesses are far more likely to face penalties for violations of the law. Meanwhile, those the state does not «see» often get much luckier. In this story, the journalists set out to understand how, under the guise of culture and tradition, shadow businesses can flourish — and why the state prefers to «look the other way».
You don’t need to search far for an example: the «Borshchyk in a Clay Pot» festival in Opishnia is a picture-perfect event that scales beautifully across the country. TikTok, Instagram and Facebook are filled with invitations from its organiser, Olena Shcherban — a local ethnographer whose authentic style draws enormous interest. Yet behind the attractive façade, as so often happens, the filling is far less appealing. Although the festival attracts visitors from all over Ukraine every year, local residents mostly speak of it in negative terms.
The journalists spent nearly six months giving all relevant officials and stakeholders an opportunity to respond to the systematic violations of numerous laws. Ultimately, however, they managed only to assemble a puzzle illustrating the complete dysfunction of the system. What exactly is happening — and what can be done about it — is explored further in the full story.
Kremenchutskyi Telegraf
Kremenchuk’s City Centre Under Development: How Historic Architecture Is Disappearing
Team mentor: Anastasiia Usenko, Bihus.Info
Publication date: 1 November 2025
«Every year, buildings in the centre of Kremenchuk disappear — buildings that could have become an important part of our cultural heritage. The city still has examples of Art Nouveau, brick ribbon construction, and 19th–early 20th century classicism. However, structures that have not yet received official protection continue to be systematically destroyed», local activists say. In recent years, Kremenchuk has been rapidly developing — territorial plans are changing, and new construction projects are emerging.
Yet alongside this growth, entire fragments of the historic city centre are quietly being erased. In the race for square metres of new residential developments, the city is losing something that cannot be rebuilt — its architectural memory. Among the most striking losses during the full-scale war, activists name the buildings at 13 Ivana Mazepy Street, 17 Hohol Street, and 13 Teatralna Street.
20 HVYLYN (Ternopil)
Free Municipal Land Turned Into Luxury Housing: How Townhouses Appeared on Chaikovskoho Street Instead of Private Homesteads
Team mentor: Oleksandra Hubytska, NGL.media
Publication date: 4 November 2025
The Ternopil City Council allocated 20 ares of land on Chaikovskoho Street free of charge for individual residential construction. Shortly afterward, all the plots changed owners almost simultaneously: two of them were purchased by an official from one of the city council’s municipal enterprises, who later gifted the land to a well-known local developer whose husband has been referred to as a former classmate of the mayor. But is that really the case?
In the end, modern townhouses are now being built on this land — properties valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Zaporizhzhia Investigative Reporting Center
«Pumping Station» Two-Storey Cottage on the Banks of the Dnipro for a Zaporizhzhia Councillor (or His Wife)
Team mentor: Maksym Opanasenko, Bihus.Info
Publication date: 4 November 2025
How do you imagine a hydraulic engineering structure? Okay, let’s simplify — a pumping station. What does a pumping station look like? Most likely, a small facility on the riverbank with pipes and a maze of valves, taps, and pressure sensors.
And it is probably the last thing that would come to mind that a pumping station could look like a cottage. A comfortable cottage of almost 200 square metres, with sun loungers and a barbecue area. With doors, windows, balconies. Yet this kind of «miracle» in one of the most picturesque spots in Zaporizhzhia, right on the banks of the Dnipro, we managed to discover almost by accident — thanks to a series of coincidences.
According to official documents, the building is registered precisely as a «pumping station».
But in reality, with the support of colleagues, one of the city’s most well-known and influential councillors has settled here. Ironically, all land-related decisions of the Zaporizhzhia City Council pass through him. Now it seems those decisions have not been passing without personal benefit.
Media examined this magical transformation of an industrial facility into an expensive residence — and uncovered who, when, and most importantly, how managed to arrange it.
Molodyi Bukovynets
BMW, Porsche, Tesla: The Updated Car Fleet of Bukovyna Councillors
Team mentor: Anastasiia Usenko, Bihus.Info
Publication date: 4 November 2025
Nearly every third member of the Chernivtsi Regional Council reported owning or using a new car in their asset declarations over the past two years. Chernivtsi City Council members were not far behind and also refreshed their vehicle fleets.
MB thoroughly examined the asset declarations of councillors from both the Chernivtsi City Council and the Regional Council and analysed the market value of their cars. It turned out that some councillors understated the price of their vehicles — either because they lacked an official explanation for the origin of the funds or to avoid scrutiny from the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP). Others were unable to explain at all where the money for a new car came from.
Kolo
The TikTok Manager: Who Is Sponsoring the PR Campaign of Valerii Parkhomenko, Who Wants to Lead Poltava?
Team mentor: Nataliia Lazarovych, Bihus.Info
Publication date: 5 November 2025
Earning a salary of 100,000 hryvnias per month, the First Deputy Mayor of Poltava does not hesitate to spend up to 3,000 dollars every month on self-promotion on Facebook alone. Are such expenses affordable for a public official? Who owns the car he uses but does not declare? And why, despite these significant costs, are his savings continuing to grow? Journalists investigated these questions in our latest report.
Crimean Center for Investigative Journalism
Business & Cover-Up: How Companies Linked to “Chekists” Secured a Foothold in EU Ports and Countries
Team mentor: Alisa Yurchenko, The Kyiv Independent
Publication date: 8 November 2025
The bloody war of aggression waged by Russia against Ukraine is in full swing. The world fears a new wave of Russian aggression — this time against the Baltic states. Meanwhile, in one of the Baltic ports, dredgers are carrying out deepening works for a company linked to the business empire of a retired FSB general who once headed the notorious 5th Service operating across former Soviet republics.
No, this is not the plot of a new season of «Occupied». These are the realities of today. The Centre for Investigative Journalism examined the history of the EHT Group network, whose companies were established in a dozen countries worldwide, as well as the Moscow-based GDP Group, and draws the attention of security services and governments to the potential risks they pose.
Lokator Media
«The Family of Valerii Yefremov, Head of the Criminal Police in Zaporizhzhia Region, Receives Money from a Relative in the “DNR”»
Team mentor: Oleksandra Gubytska, NGL.media
Publication date: 17 November 2025
Colonel Valerii Yefremov, a senior police officer, has been involved in counter-sabotage operations and stabilisation measures on the liberated territories of Donetsk region since 2014. Yet he declared nearly one million hryvnias received by his wife from her mother, who was running a business in occupied Donetsk.
Read the first series and collection of materials here: «Truth in Details: An Overview of Journalistic Investigations within the Stronger Together Project».
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The Stronger Together: Transparency and Anti-Corruption program is implemented by AIRPPU in partnership with WAN-IFRA and the Norwegian Media Association (MBL), with the support of Norway.
