The 74-year-old mother of a senior Kyiv prosecutor has accumulated real estate valued at more than one million dollars despite being retired in a country where the average pension does not exceed $150 per month, according to an investigation.
Angelina Donchenko’s most expensive purchases were made while her son, Serhiy Pavchuk, has been serving as a senior official in the General Prosecutor’s Office overseeing organized crime cases since at least 2021. Journalists report that Pavchuk uses the properties registered in his mother’s name and drives a car listed as hers.
The centerpiece of the family’s assets is property in an upscale gated development outside Kyiv. Donchenko acquired two adjoining plots totaling about 2,000 square meters in July 2023, paying roughly $71,000 at the time, far below the approximately $290,000 suggested by comparable listings.
Satellite imagery indicates that construction of a large house and auxiliary buildings on the site may have begun as early as 2019, with structures visible by 2020. Journalists found no registry entries for those buildings, meaning they do not formally exist on paper. An architect estimated the land’s market value in 2023 at approximately $320,000 and the buildings at up to $800,000.
During her professional career, Donchenko ran several businesses, but tax records indicate they could not have generated enough profit to purchase the properties at market value. Her current company, engaged in wholesale chemical product trade, has mainly recorded losses.
Donchenko also purchased a 75-square-meter Kyiv apartment in 2019 that Pavchuk reportedly uses, with an official price of just over $76,000 while the developer’s prices at the time were closer to $95,000. That same year, a 2016 Toyota Camry was registered in her name at a declared value below market.
Questions about the source of funds intensified after Donchenko loaned approximately $200,000 in 2020 to an entrepreneur who later bought four apartments in historic buildings and pledged them to her as collateral. Legal experts note such arrangements can be used to convert questionable money flows into property if loans are never repaid.
In the prosecutor’s office’s response to inquiries, Pavchuk insisted the property was acquired with funds from his mother’s business activities and those of his late father.