Another scam in the grain market – the theft of grain from an elevator linked to the former Minister of Agriculture

Traders claim that about 100 thousand tons of grain disappeared from the Volitsa Agro elevator in the Kyiv region (according to other estimates, 130-140 thousand tons), the losses from which amount to at least $30 million, but in fact they could be much higher. Experts from the landowner tried to understand the situation.

According to YouControl, the elevator belongs to Oleksiy Olenchenko, who previously worked at the company "Solsky, Protsyk and Partners", co-founded by the former Minister of Agriculture and Industrial Complex of Ukraine Mykola Solsky.

Market participants believe that the elevator issued warehouse receipts for grain that was not in stock or that was sold to several buyers at once. Since buyers in the state register can only see their warehouse receipts, they are unable to check whether a certain amount of grain has been reissued to several companies at once. Even if the grain is physically in the warehouse, the owner cannot check how many times it has already been sold or reissued to other owners.

In order not to arouse suspicion among grain owners, the elevator has been shipping small batches to many companies in recent months, but stopped shipping two weeks ago.

Representatives of the affected companies told the editorial office of Latifundist about the situation. All of them reported that M. Solsky personally conducted negotiations with them regarding grain shipments. He also reported that there was no grain in the warehouse, so they would have to declare bankruptcy. ADM, Louis Dreyfus Company, Cargill, Kernel, Epicenter, LNZ, Arista, MHP and other enterprises could have suffered losses in this story. The main part of the shortage is corn, but traders also talk about soybeans and rapeseed.

The editorial staff tried to contact representatives of the elevator and M. Solsky, but they did not answer the calls. But according to the information portal "Judiciary of Ukraine", on March 17, 2026, "V AGRO" (Arista) filed a bankruptcy case against "Volitsa-Agro" with the Commercial Court of Kyiv.

Recall that on April 23, 2024, NABU served Mykola Solsky, who was then the Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, with suspicion of illegal appropriation of state land. Later, it became known that suspicion in the case of appropriation of state land was also served on Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy Markiyan Dmytrasevych, who, according to investigators, influenced other participants in the scheme with his actions in order to hide a document confirming the right of permanent use of land of two state-owned enterprises in Sumy region.

Amid the scandal, on April 25, Solsky wrote a letter of resignation from the post of Minister of Agricultural Policy, and the Supreme Council voted in favor of it on May 9. In January 2026, Solsky's case was transferred to court. And on March 18, it became known that the Appellate Chamber of the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court left the criminal proceedings against Solsky in the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court.