Killer with a Serbian passport: oligarch Petro Dyminskyi spends millions from deals with pro-Kremlin companies to scrub information about a fatal road accident in Ukraine

05 мая 2026 г.

Sergey Varchenko

After the media revived the topic of the fatal accident and Petro Dyminsky’s flight from Ukraine, mentions of him began to disappear from the media. Publications are edited or deleted, inconvenient facts are suppressed, and the story is gradually blurred—from the accident itself to his subsequent life abroad with new documents and statuses.

What we’re talking about is a deliberate suppression of information that calls into question the ability to avoid responsibility for years. All that remains is a vague background—without details, without context, and without key questions.

We, in turn, are publishing material that is so disturbing to the oligarch who escaped punishment for a fatal accident and who is quietly settling in Europe.

Ukrainian law enforcement agencies continue to search for Petr Dyminskyi, suspected of involvement in a fatal accident. The investigation has been temporarily suspended and his whereabouts remain unknown.

Eight years ago, a Mercedes-Benz crashed into another car on a highway in western Ukraine, killing a 31-year-old woman. The photographs show Ukrainian tycoon Petr Dyminskyi at the scene of the accident, although it has not been confirmed whether he was driving. Four days later, as reported , he left the country on a private jet.

Dyminskyi is still wanted by Ukrainian authorities, and although he has since been repeatedly caught by the media in a number of European countries, his whereabouts remain unknown. The pre-trial investigation has been suspended while authorities try to establish his whereabouts, prosecutors told OCCRP’s Ukrainian partner, NGL.media.

Now journalists have discovered that the 70-year-old man took action shortly after the disaster to secure his status abroad by obtaining a residence permit in Greece and Serbian citizenship.

Ukrainian tycoon Petr Dyminskyi at the scene of an incident on August 18, 2017 in the Lviv region in western Ukraine.

Before leaving Ukraine, Dyminskyi had a classic set of oligarchs: he owned a football team in Lviv, a TV channel and worked in parliament for several years. With a net worth of $103 million, he was ranked 44th on Forbes’ list of the richest Ukrainians in 2016.

Data obtained by OCCRP and partners shows that two months after the deadly collision, he spent 280,000 euros on a semi-detached house with a gate in the Athens suburb of Voula. These investments gave him the right to receive a Greek «gold visa», which includes a residence permit and the right to visa-free travel throughout the Schengen area.

According to Inside Story, Dyminskyi renewed his visa in November 2022 and left Greece the same day, according to his movements, which were reviewed by OCCRP’s Greek partner. It is unknown whether he returned. When journalists visited the house where he lived in May, the building looked dilapidated and was partially under renovation.

Dyminskyi purchased a duplex in the Athens suburb of Voula for €280,000 two months after a fatal car accident.

Greek police and the Ministry of Migration declined to comment on his case.

Dyminskyi did not answer questions from journalists addressed to his daughter and lawyer.

Shortly after purchasing Greek real estate, Dyminski also managed to obtain a Serbian passport in November 2017, according to another Border Patrol data leak. Three years later, his wife Elena also received citizenship of this Balkan state. According to Border Patrol data obtained by Inside Story, the couple flew from Athens to Belgrade and back on the day the document was issued.

The Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that Dyminski was granted citizenship because it was considered consistent with «state interests», without providing further details.

Although the country does not have a «pay for passport» scheme, citizenship was previously granted to high-ranking foreign citizens, including politicians from Romania and Thailand, wanted by authorities in their homeland.

Nikola Kovacevic, a Serbian lawyer specializing in migration and asylum issues, said that state decisions to grant citizenship to foreigners who are financially secure or influential have historically been determined more by political than legal criteria.

In contrast, «asylum seekers from countries where political persecution poses a much bigger problem» may face difficulties in obtaining protection, he added.

In addition to the new travel documents, Dyminskyi’s ability to restore life abroad was also complicated by the lack of an international warrant for his arrest.

According to Ukraine’s court registry, Interpol deleted the blue notice — request for information about a person of interest, — which was posted in relation to Dyminskyi in 2018. Interpol later rejected Ukraine’s requests to post a red notice, most recently in 2023. Both Interpol and Ukrainian authorities refused to provide a reason.

Links with the Serbian military industry

The Serbian passport — is not the only connection between the oligarch and the Balkan state, as journalists from the Serbian center OCCRP KRIK found out. The firm, currently owned by Dyminskyi’s wife, has also provided millions of euros to an arms trading company in the country, according to the company.

In June 2019, Dyminskyi sold his ZIK TV channel to Taras Kozak, a former member of parliament whom Ukrainian authorities accuse of being pro-Kremlin. After the sale, the journalists quickly left the TV channel, and later the Ukrainian authorities accused the channel of spreading pro-Russian propaganda. In February 2021, it was blocked by Ukrainian authorities.

The sale price was not disclosed at the time, but company records show that the channel was sold for $27.4 million through Cyprus-registered firm Ablemark Limited, controlled at the time by Dyminskyi’s wife and daughters. (Dyminskyi himself was previously listed as a beneficiary of the company in 2017).

Soon after, Ablemark began issuing millions of loans to various companies, including one that later issued licenses to export weapons to Serbia.

In February 2020, Ablemark provided an interest-free loan of €2.6 million to Cypriot company Jikinto Limited. By April, Jikinto had obtained the first of several export permits for Serbian weapons and sold more than €10.3 million worth of Serbian weapons to the Ugandan Ministry of Defense that same year. Journalists were unable to identify the ultimate beneficiary of Jikinto.

According to leaked documents a Cypriot corporate services provider, Jikinto returned €1.6 million to Ablemark in November 2020. It is unknown whether the rest of the loan was repaid.