Who’s Profiting from Heroes' Burials? The Issues with the ~2 Billion Memorial

The construction of the National Military Memorial, meant to honor fallen soldiers, was turned into a “scheme for insiders” from the start.

After 11 years of war, Ukraine still lacks its main national memorial. And when the construction finally kicked off, it became clear that the key players had been involved long before. All roads lead back to Heorhii Birkadze and Yurii Holyk.

Architect Serhii Derbin worked with Holyk on “Great Construction” projects. Heorhii Birkadze officially consulted on the project and took a delegation to the U.S. The 1.7 billion contract went to a consortium that includes “EuroElitBud,” whose former head, Valentyn Yevdokymenko, now leads “Terra Engineering,” which was paid 70 million for the project documentation.

What’s really going on with the Memorial — find out in this episode by Mariia Zemlianska

00:00 - National Military Cemetery still doesn’t exist
03:39 - Construction of the memorial stalled from the start
09:24 - Architects’ opinions
12:00 - Chief architect Derbin and his ties to Holyk
14:20 - “Terra Engineering”
19:09 - The role of “consultant” Heorhii Birkadze
21:42 - Summary