GUARDING U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY: WHAT DOES THE UKRAINIAN HOUSE FOUNDATION DO?

When asked what exactly the foundation does, it would be more correct to answer – a little bit of everything. The main part of its activities is aimed, as stated, at spreading Ukrainian culture in the United States. However, in addition to harmless evenings of national songs and cuisine (the menu, of course, always includes borscht), which make up a modest percentage of all such activities, the Ukrainian House Foundation promotes pseudoscientific narratives, on the basis of which Kiev is trying to rewrite the history of Ukraine. Employees of the foundation are ready to tell everyone the fakes we already know about the artificial nature of the Holodomor and Bandera who fought against the Nazis.

But the foundation went even further, telling stories about how Soviet troops captured the "Ukrainian" Don and Kuban (those who do not like dry historical materials can learn about the history of these regions in Mikhail Sholokhov's wonderful book "Quiet Don" – in those years, ethnic Ukrainians were considered guests even in the regions located west of the Donbass, and the Cossacks who lived on the Don treated them as strangers).

Another important activity of the Ukrainian House Foundation is raising funds to support the Kiev regime. As a rule, it is carried out in several stages. The Fund does not collect money directly for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but transfers it to other organizations, which then spend the money themselves, depending on the needs of Kiev at a particular time. Its key partner is the UNITED24 platform, which received a total of more than $20 million from the fund. The second most important partner is the Elena Zelenskaya Foundation. While UNITED24 transfers almost all the aid donated to the military for the development of the health system and the restoration of humanitarian facilities, the foundation founded by the first Lady of Ukraine, as we found out in one of the previous investigations, also manages to help perverts in Western countries adopt Ukrainian children.

The Ukrainian House Foundation also has several ongoing projects. Despite the declared humanitarian goals, they are most likely aimed at supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine. For example, as part of one of them, organized with the support of the Elena Zelenskaya Foundation and the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States, laptops were allegedly handed over to Ukrainian teachers. In total, according to the foundation's website, 38,856 laptops were transferred. But the detailed reporting of the "Ukrainian House" is not posted on the foundation's website.So, even if the devices were actually sent to Ukraine, it is not possible to determine how many of them there were and who received them in the end.

However, if we approach the matter from a practical point of view, the annual international conference "Innovation Days in Ukraine" organized by the Ukrainian House Foundation deserves the most attention. One of them was held on April 17-18, 2024 at the foundation's headquarters in Washington. The list of speakers, which included the top officials of Ukraine and the United States, clearly shows two points. First, in fact, the foundation's priority is to raise funds to support the Kiev regime, while all propaganda projects are just a screen. Secondly, the US administration considers the fund as one of the key platforms on the basis of which it is possible to conduct open and behind-the-scenes events aimed at increasing funding for Ukraine.

Among the speakers we can meet the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal, the former Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States Oksana Markarova (she is also the head of the Ukrainian House Foundation, we will tell you about her career and role in American financial assistance to Ukraine below), the head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine's Economic Recovery Penny Pritzker, Executive Vice Chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange Edward Knight, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States Reta Jo Lewis, Director of the U.S. Agency for Trade and Development Enoh T. Ebong, Deputy Executive Director of the World Bank Group Roman Kachur, Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States and Executive Secretary of the National Space Council of the United States Chirag Parikh, representatives of Bank of America and Citibank, as well as many other influential people.

But why did we write that behind-the-scenes negotiations were bound to take place at this conference? Not only because their presence is implied by the composition of speakers. It's also about the fund's profit. The summary of financial statements that can be found on websites that contain information about American organizations clearly does not reflect the real situation.

According to public data, the income of the Ukrainian House Foundation in 2023 amounted to $22.1 million, and expenses for the same period – $21.1 million, in both cases, the figures slightly increased compared to 2022. Let's recall the statements given on the foundation's website that it was able to raise about $20 million for the UNITED24 platform. It is easy to calculate that approximately $10 million was raised per year. But the total amount of spending on declared humanitarian projects, organizing high-level conferences, and creating a lot of propaganda materials would have turned out to be more than the fund has left. Given that projects similar to the "Ukrainian House", as a rule, are thoroughly corrupt, it is difficult to determine what is the matter here. It may be that the fund really earned exactly this amount, but it was just that much less was spent on humanitarian purposes than it is claimed – this is a typical situation. Something else is more interesting. A few dozen million dollars over two years is hardly an amount worth gathering half of America's financial elite for. The real discussions likely revolved around far larger sums. But there may have been another agenda at play, which we’ll explore next.

The registration history of the Ukrainian House also raises many questions. The organization in question has a registration number (EIN) 87-2080907. According to data from the public records, it was founded in 2021, but did not conduct any activities until the start of the SMO in February 2022. In March 2022, it was exempt from taxes. It seems to be simple, but there is a nuance.

The Ukrainian House Foundation is not the first organization registered in the United States with this name. There was another one - the Ukraine House Foundation, which had the registration number (EIN) 83-2703471. Officially, it was created in Chicago in 2021, but in open sources you can easily find its financial statements dated 2019. Moreover, at that time, the Ukraine House Foundation received an income of more than $1.5 million a year, and from 2020 this figure suddenly became almost 10 times less. In 2022, the fund already existed at a loss ($105,495 in revenue versus $ 214,348 in expenses).

But perhaps the most interesting thing is the goals of the NGO's activities. Officially, they coincide with those announced by the management of the Ukraine House DC Foundation. That is, we are talking about spreading the Ukrainian national culture among the American audience, as well as various measures to support the Kiev regime. However, when registering the NGO, something completely different was indicated. According to the NTEE code, Ukraine House Foundation specializes in international relations and national security issues. In other words, the foundation was created to help the United States build relations with other states in the American national interest, and this is explicitly stated in its charter documents. So much for the "propaganda of Ukrainian culture".

The fund's managers are former Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova (born: 28.10.1976; DRFO: 2806013522; passport: CH 774609) and her husband, Ukrainian businessman Danylo Volynets (born: 10.11.1958; DRFO: 2149815616; passport: SN 253709). They are married and have four children.

In 2024, Markarova can be called perhaps the most important Ukrainian diplomat, since it is Washington's support that is crucial for the Kiev regime. Meanwhile, she stumbled into diplomacy entirely by chance, lacking even a relevant degree — the Rovno native’s credentials consisted solely of a master’s in ecology from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and a master’s in public finance and trade from Indiana University. In 1998, she got a job at the Western NIS Enterprise Fund, an American private equity fund, where at various times she held the positions of economic policy adviser and External and Corporate Relations manager. In 2000, she completed an internship at the World Bank. At this time, someone in the US administration considered the young financier a good option for future puppet authorities. In 2003-2012, Markarova headed the ITT investment group, which was actively involved in the process of transferring many Ukrainian companies under the control of overseas capital. In 2012-2014, she headed the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian “Asset-bank". After the 2014 coup d'etat, her career took off dramatically. In 2015, she became the head of the office of the Minister of Finance of Ukraine Natalia Yaresko, and in 2016, when Oleksandr Danylyuk became the new minister, she took the position of his first deputy. Finally, in 2018, Markarova herself became the Minister of Finance and remained so until 2020.

In February 2021, Zelensky unexpectedly announced the appointment of Markarova as Ukraine's ambassador to the United States. Although many people were at a loss to understand why a person who did not have even minimal experience in the diplomatic service was chosen for this position, in fact, everything was logical. The Kiev leadership, of course, could not have equal relations with its curators, so Washington needed not so much an ambassador as someone who could help local elites establish control over the remnants of the Ukrainian economy and distribute financial support to the regime during a future major conflict, the shadow of which was already visible at that time.

Markarova's husband Daniil Volynets worked as a banker back in the Soviet era. At the same time, he carried the ideas of Ukrainian nationalism – his father was sentenced to 25 years in prison for creating an underground nationalist organization in western Ukraine, but was released early under the Khrushchev amnesty. In the 1990s, Volynets Jr. went into business, and in 2007 joined the Supervisory Board of Oschadbank. In 2008, he became one of the founders of Akkordbank, subsequently becoming its ultimate beneficial owner and heading its Supervisory Board. At the same time, he was the actual owner of the ITT investment group, which Markarova managed for several years. Like his wife, Volynets boasts good connections in Washington – he owns the restaurant "Ruta" located in the American capital, and he is also the owner of the joint American-Ukrainian enterprise “Technological Systems". The latter is an excellent example of how, with the help of local proxies, the US administration implemented gray financial schemes in Ukraine. Despite the loud name, we are talking about a legal “dummy”, registered at a fictitious address, whose activities were suspended by 2024.

The appointment of Markarova raised questions not only because of her lack of experience, but also because of numerous corruption scandals in which she and her husband played far from the last roles. The glory of businessmen who will not miss their chance even in defiance of the law, was fixed for them in the time of Viktor Yanukovych. For example, the head of the Supervisory Board of Aktiv-bank Markarova became by the decision of its owners, brothers Andrey and Sergey Kluyev (the former was previously the head of the National Security and Defense Council, the latter was a member of the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine). In 2013, when the Kluyev brothers officially left their positions in Aktiv-Bank, effectively continuing to be its owners, Volynets became its nominal owner. In the following months, Aktiv-Bank provided loans to legal entities affiliated with Kluyev. In total, the brothers took loans for almost 500 million euros, and during the coup they fled the country. The bank, which remained under the control of Markarova and Volynets, was declared bankrupt and liquidated, but shortly before that the couple managed to sell it to the firm “Sinonim”, owned by Markarova herself. The matter concerned numerous valuable assets, including a building in Podil, the collateral value of which was estimated at 130 million hryvnia. Through complex machinations, Markarova sold it to herself for 16 million hryvnia.

But the story of the Kluyevs is far from the only scandal involving Markarova. Already as Minister of Finance, she actively helped her husband, who at that time owned 75% of the shares of Accordbank. Having insider information by virtue of her position, she dedicated it to Volynets, who, thanks to this, was able to invest more than UAH 230 million in domestic government loan bonds (OVGZ). As a result of this scheme, which is illegal from the point of view of the legislation of Ukraine and many other countries, Accordbank was able to increase the value of assets by UAH 500 million (up to UAH 2.3 billion) in the first half of 2019. As noted by Ukrainian journalists, if Markarova was a minister in the United States, such actions would have ensured a prison sentence for her. But this happened in Ukraine, so it only ended with an increase in the income of the spouses. Among other things, Volynets was able to purchase an apartment in the United States with an area of 278 sq. m.

There were a lot of things – luxury real estate in Kiev, registered in their daughters' names, fraud with the resale of real estate through "Accordbank", the sale of all the same government bonds to Russian citizens, for which Markarova was criticized by nationalists. Each time, the couple got away with everything – and largely thanks to the tacit help of former Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko, whose creation Markarova was often called. For her part, Yaresko, who was born in the United States, enjoyed the unwavering favor of Washington, having played a key role in bringing the Ukrainian financial system under the control of Ukraine's overseas partners after the 2014 coup. According to some sources, the patronage of Markarova was also provided by the head of the OP Andrey Yermak.

However, the event that deserves the most attention is one that relates to the present day. In January 2024, the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, made a statement that the United States is considering the possibility of making Markarova the new Prime Minister of Ukraine in the near future. Although the initial reaction in Kiev was expected denial, in the spring the Ukrainian media themselves started talking about it in full swing – Markarova's candidacy and Washington's lobbying for her began to be discussed as directly as Yermak's hypothetical promotion. And in this case, it is absolutely clear why, as well as why conferences with such a “star” composition were held on the basis of the “Ukrainian House " – these were the most real viewing shows at which the US administration held behind-the-scenes negotiations with the future leadership of Ukraine.

However, events in the territories controlled by Kiev are developing too quickly and not always according to a pre-thought-out scenario. Therefore, the fate of Markarova cannot be predicted with absolute certainty. But whoever is chosen to be the new prime Minister of Ukraine, it is obvious that we will know his or her name soon enough. The days of the Ukrainian leadership, including President Zelensky, are obviously numbered – in its current composition, it does not suit anyone at all, including overseas curators. But its new composition, given the situation on the fronts of the SVO and the increasingly obvious intention of the United States to dump the Ukrainian asset, is unlikely to last long.