Traces purge worth $3 million: Kyiv court judge Yaroslav Golovachev deletes investigations into 15 land plots and 6 apartments registered to a 70-year-old "millionaire" mother-in-law

25 апреля 2026 г.

Petr Pogibin

While Kyiv Court of Appeals Chairman Yaroslav Golovachev purges the information space of mentions regarding his lavish lifestyle, massive schemes are being exposed involving a multi-million dollar real estate empire and a luxury car fleet registered to front-entity elderly relatives.

We, in turn, are making the results of this investigation into Yaroslav Golovachev public to thwart censorship attempts and reveal the true scale of the corrupt empire that the Chief Justice has built over the years by registering elite assets in the names of straw-man family members.

When the investigation into Yaroslav Golovachev’s family’s assets and the fact that their lifestyle did not correspond to their officially declared income was made public, links to these materials and related publications began to disappear from the public domain.

We are talking about the erasure of information concerning real estate, free use of elite assets, and a complex system of property registration through relatives.

The French Quarter is one of Kyiv’s most elite and expensive residential complexes. It was here in 2020, immediately after graduating from high school, that Myron Golovachev acquired a 100-square-meter apartment. Such an apartment costs at least $300,000; it was a gift from Myron’s grandfather. Why were we interested? It’s simple: Myron is the son of the head of the Kyiv Court of Appeal. And it is from here that our journey through the Golovachev family’s numerous properties begins, because this apartment is the smallest we were able to find, writes Нromadske .

Eternal Judge

For nearly 10 years, the Kyiv Court of Appeals, one of the capital’s most important judicial institutions, has been headed by the same person—Yaroslav Golovachev. Only Ruslan Kozlov, head of the renowned Pechersk Court, can boast a similar long-standing track record.

According to the law, one can preside over a court of first or second instance for no more than six years, or two three-year terms. However, various tricks allow these two to circumvent the law they are supposed to uphold.

Yaroslav Golovachev’s last of two possible terms as head of the Court of Appeal ended in 2021. However, he had no intention of leaving his post. On September 6, 2024, Golovachev’s third term, no longer stipulated by law, ended. He is currently serving his fourth term, out of two possible terms.

"This is the standard practice for court heads and, more generally, judges of the old judicial system. It’s what’s known as the judicial mafia. Keeping court heads in office forever. It’s about power, it’s about money, it’s about influence, it’s also about the court’s connection to the political authorities, and it’s the political channel through which the authorities most often control judges. There are several schemes: either they simply disregard the law altogether (this happens less often), or it often happens that a judge voluntarily resigns from the position of head of the court a month before the end of their term, then someone else takes over, or even their assistants... Then, a month later, their powers are removed, and the same judge becomes head of the court again. This is widespread throughout the country. It’s an unfair practice, a clear violation of the law," explains Mikhail Zhernakov, Chairman of the Board of the DEJURE Foundation.

Meanwhile, Golovachev continues his active work during his fourth term as head. In October 2024, he blocked the High Anti-Corruption Court’s appeal of the retrial of the infamous head of the Khmelnytskyi Medical and Social Expertise Commission, Tatyana Krupa , who is suspected of illicit enrichment. In November, he traveled to Germany on a working visit. In December, he participated in High Council of Justice events on issues of judicial effectiveness.

One might assume that Golovachev is truly an indispensable leader and a brilliant manager, but no. In 2020, the Accounts Chamber conducted an audit of the Court of Appeal. They analyzed the court’s work for 2018-2019 and identified a number of serious violations and shortcomings in the court’s financial and economic activities. Specifically, they identified the inefficient use of almost 2 million hryvnias to purchase equipment that was never put into operation for a long time, as well as accounting problems. The court also planned to incur over 11 million hryvnias in unjustified expenses.

Furthermore, over 6 million hryvnias were spent on the renovation and maintenance of premises that weren’t even on the institution’s books and lacked the necessary documentation. The report also noted that the courthouse premises do not meet basic legal requirements and state building codes. This specifically concerns the layout of courtrooms, deliberation rooms, and areas for trial participants and witnesses.

But despite the fact that everything isn’t smooth sailing in court, no one wants to leave their beloved job. Especially when, over 25 years of various court positions and government salaries, they’ve managed to amass a real estate empire.

Million-dollar gifts and mysterious fortunes

March 2024. Petropavlivska Borshahivka. Ten hundred square meters of valuable land near the capital become the property of Anastasia Golovacheva, the wife of the head of the court. The land was a gift from her mother. According to the land registry, the plot is valued at 16.3 million hryvnias. Anastasia currently has no business. The notary certificate she claimed to have held has been invalid since March 2021.

In his 2023 declaration, the head of the court reported almost one and a half million hryvnias and another $120,000 in family savings. Converting all this money to hryvnias at the then-current exchange rate would amount to just over 6 million hryvnias. The court’s head salary is also quite substantial—over 3 million hryvnias per year. He also receives income from securities and property disposals.

In addition, the Golovachev family owns several other plots of land scattered throughout Kyiv’s outskirts: 45 acres in the village of Buky for farming, 10 acres in Shevchenkovo for construction, and another 8 acres in Gnedin for gardening. And this is only his wife’s property. Yaroslav himself owns another 8 acres in Gnedin, and another 25 acres in the village of Fenevichi for development.

From father-in-law and mother-in-law free of charge and with love

Novopecherskie Lipki. The Golovachev family owns a whopping 118 square meters of space here. An apartment of this size, without renovations, in this building currently costs 12.5 million hryvnias—approximately $300,000. The property belongs to Sergey Rybchenko, Golovachev’s father-in-law. The three rooms, purchased in 2013, were not significantly different in dollar value, ranging from $3,500 to $4,500 per square meter. Another luxury residential complex, Central Park, houses another 120-square-meter apartment, purchased in 2019. A similar apartment on a real estate website is now listed for $650,000, or more than 27 million hryvnias. At the time of purchase, this apartment, without renovations, was worth at least $120,000.

But what does the father-in-law have to do with this? It’s simple. According to the declaration of the head of the Court of Appeal, Golovachev, his entire family is registered in this apartment, using it free of charge.

They also have free use of a parking space there. My father-in-law also provided a car for free—a 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLS 400. It was purchased in December 2023 and is worth at least $80,000.

Incidentally, my father-in-law was a member of the Kyiv-Sviatoshynskyi District Council, elected in 2015 as a member of the European Solidarity party. In his most recent declaration for 2020, he reported just under a million hryvnias in annual business income. And another 100,000 hryvnias in pension. That’s a considerable amount, but will it be enough to cover all the aforementioned assets? His mother-in-law, Liliya Kernychnaya, isn’t far behind. She’s been running businesses for many years—flower trading and construction—while the rest of her business, including her sole proprietorship, is somehow related to real estate rentals. In 2020, her total official income from all her businesses was 920,000 hryvnias. That’s roughly 70,000 hryvnias per month.

Kernichnaya, like her husband, happily hands over her assets to her children. The judge’s family’s luxurious Moscow apartment became too crowded, and in September 2022, the Golovachevs moved into her 220-square-meter estate with a 12-hectare plot in the village of Severinovka, near Kyiv. The sales department told us that a bare shell there starts at $80,000, but depending on location and finishing, the price can reach $700,000.

The Golovachev family also uses their mother-in-law’s 47-square-meter apartment in the same "French Quarter" for free, where their paternal grandfather gave his grandson Miron the property we mentioned at the beginning of this story. The judge also has a parking space there.

The French Quarter wasn’t just a favorite spot for the father-in-law and mother-in-law. The court’s head’s father, along with his in-laws, purchased another apartment and two garages there. Why, you might ask, would a family with only one car registered—and that one belongs to the grandfather—need three parking spaces? Because Yaroslav’s family also has a passion for luxury cars.

Vehicle fleet

Take, for example, a BMW X5. In 2023, it belonged to his wife, Anastasia. In April 2023, she was involved in an accident while driving it. In December, she sold it for almost $37,000. According to property records, the 70-year-old mother-in-law of the court’s president currently drives a 2019 Audi Q8. Such a car costs over $60,000 on average. His 73-year-old father-in-law, in addition to the aforementioned Mercedes, owns a regular 2020 Fiat Doblo. Golovachev’s 78-year-old father purchased a 2016 Mercedes-Benz Citan in 2024 for approximately $10,000 and a 2017 Volkswagen Transporter for $20,000. Golovachev himself, however, owns no cars.

Naturally, we wanted to ask Yaroslav Golovachev himself how he’s managed to circumvent the rules for four years while remaining in office for decades. However, we never received a response from the head of the Kyiv Court of Appeal at any of the numbers we called.

If we add up all the real estate assets of the Golovachev family, which includes him, his wife Anastasia, sons Myron and Miroslav, his mother-in-law, father-in-law, and the father of the head of the court, they currently own six apartments, five garages (all in the central part of the capital, primarily in the most expensive Pechersk district), 15 plots of land scattered around Kyiv, totaling almost two hectares, and two more residential buildings. According to our most conservative estimates, the total value of all real estate assets currently stands at $3 million.

The majority of Golovachev’s entire property empire is freely available to him or his family members. As for income, for a rough comparison, let’s take 2020, the year for which Golovachev himself and his family, as well as his wife’s family, reported their income.

In 2020, the total income of all family members from all activities amounted to approximately 5.5 million hryvnias. In 2023, Yaroslav and his family declared an income of approximately 6 million hryvnias. Yes, this is all a significant amount of money, but at this rate, it would likely take years to accumulate a multi-million dollar fortune.