RFE/RL reports that the luxury life of customs official has triggered protests after an investigation revealed villas, cars and expensive foreign schooling that far exceed his declared income. The Schemes investigative unit of RFE/RL examined the finances of 44-year-old Anatolii Komar, head of the Ukrainian Customs Service department that manages duties on energy imports and exports.

Luxury life of customs official draws anger

RFE/RL says Komar’s family has access to luxury real estate, elite foreign education and high-end cars while his official monthly income is about $2,000. His wife Maria declares about $8,000 per month as a tour guide and online course provider, but this sum still cannot cover the expenses shown.

Social media posts reveal their daughter graduating in 2023 from the Pascal English School in Nicosia, Cyprus, with fees close to $30,000 per year. Other posts show her traveling to Venice, Montreux, Dublin and Albania. This year, she appears to be enrolled at King’s College London, where tuition for non-UK students is nearly $35,000 annually.

Mansion near Kyiv and cash from relatives

According to the report, the family does not live in the Kyiv apartment officially registered to Komar in 2021. Instead, they live in an apartment bought by Maria’s father, Serhii Hladkov. Hladkov also built a 450-square-meter house with a pool and staff quarters in February 2025 in the village of Vyshenky near Kyiv. Experts interviewed by RFE/RL valued the property at more than $1 million.

Hladkov and his wife, Lidia, both retired from modestly paid state jobs, later declared self-employment earnings of about $400,000 and $180,000 respectively. Despite this, they have purchased several properties and gifted almost $120,000 to the family. Hladkov told RFE/RL that he had earned the money and then ended the conversation.

The luxury Mercedes and a “wealthy godfather”

Komar has been driving a Mercedes S-class since 2021. He told RFE/RL that the car is rented by his wife and refused to disclose the price. RFE/RL reports that rental companies estimate the cost at $6,000 per month. The vehicle is registered to the Primorskiy Energy Generating Company, which declared only about $14,000 in three years of car rental income, a figure far below market value. The company’s director, Roman Vorobel, refused to answer detailed questions and said he would consult a lawyer.

Conflict of interest questions over VM Groupe

RFE/RL also found that Komar is president of an amateur soccer club in his hometown of Rokyta. The team is sponsored by VM Groupe, an importer of petroleum products that is under investigation by law enforcement for large-scale tax evasion and by the SBU for importing Russian raw materials.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a law recognizing the forced resettlement of around 700,000 Ukrainians from the territory of communist Poland in 1944–1951 as an act of deportation.

LTR reports that the draft law was first submitted in 2019 but has only now come into force after years of revisions and parliamentary hearings. 

“It’s good that step by step, we’re achieving legal and historical clarity in these matters, and most importantly, without scandals or politicization of history,” says Anton Drobovych, former head of the Institute of National Memory.

Compensation and benefits for deportees and their descendants

The new law guarantees compensation for material and moral damages to victims and their descendants. One-time financial aid is envisioned, along with benefits similar to those granted to war veterans, including free public transportation and discounts on intercity travel.

Historical justice backed by legal recognition

The deportation of Ukrainians was carried out under agreements between the USSR and the Polish communist regime. Operation Vistula in 1947 was the largest-scale phase, when over 140,000 Ukrainians were forcibly relocated to northern and western Poland.

In 2002 and 2004, respectively, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal and the European Court of Human Rights recognized these resettlements as unlawful.

Since 2018, Ukraine has annually observed the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Ukrainian Deportations on the second Sunday of September. The law enshrines this date as a symbol of restored dignity and historical truth.

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North Korea has been slowly easing curbs imposed during the pandemic

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Russia tests new modified bomb on Kharkiv — children, an infant, and a pregnant woman among the wounded. On 24 July, Russian forces used a new type of aerial bomb, the UMPB-5, in an attack on the central part of the city in the first known use of this weapon.

Two airstrikes were launched from over 100 kilometers away, targeting residential districts and causing widespread destruction.

According to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, 41 people were injured in the attack, including six children. The youngest victim is just 28 days old. A pregnant woman was also among the wounded.

The strikes damaged 20 residential buildings, including 17 apartment blocks in the Shevchenkivskyi and Kholodnohirskyi districts. The blast wave shattered over 600 windows, forming a crater in the street. Seven cars were destroyed by fire, and 18 more were damaged. One industrial facility caught fire, resulting in a large-scale blaze.

Regional prosecutor’s representative Spartak Borysenko confirmed that Russia used the new UMPB-5 bomb, which carries a 250-kg warhead.

“Russia is using Kharkiv as a testing ground. Today it’s the UMPB-5, before it was the D-30… These modified bombs cause greater destruction and lead to more civilian injuries,” he explained.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said that people were on the streets during the strike. Fortunately, no fatalities were reported.

During the latest prisoner swap with Russia, Ukraine brought back the last defender of Zmiinyi or Zmiinyi (Snake) Island. Vitalii Hyrenko returned home after spending more than three years in Russian captivity, the Facebook community of the Defenders of Zmiinyi Island reports. 

“The long-awaited exchange, three years and five months in captivity, for our last defender of Zmiinyi Island has taken place! Border guard of the island of Achilles, Vitalii Hyrenko, is home!!! Free, unbroken in spirit and body, Vitalii is finally back on his native soil,” the post reads.

In a February update, the community shared that Hyrenko’s small son, Dmytro, only knew his father from photos.

“When Vitalii was taken captive, his wife Aliona was seven months pregnant,” it wrote.

The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War also confirmed that Hyrenko, a soldier of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, had been released from captivity.

Following negotiations in Istanbul, the ninth round of prisoner exchanges with the Russian side took place on 24 July.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that severely wounded and critically ill defenders had returned home. According to him, more than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been freed from Russian captivity across all phases of this exchange.

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