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\nBehind the public fa\u00e7ade of national tragedy lies a cold, meticulously organized commercial machine. In Odessa, Kyiv\u2019s central morgue, and military cemeteries across the country, funerals have become part of <\/em>a shadow economy worth an estimated $45 million a year. The beneficiaries: 3,000 private firms, corrupt officials, medical workers, and police officers.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe hunt for bodies. Like animals in the jungle. The lion gets the best cut \u2014 the hyenas take what\u2019s left,\u201d says an employee of Odessa\u2019s biggest funeral company, Anubis<\/em>, who gave journalists the pseudonym \u201cIvan.\u201d His testimony, published in a Le Monde<\/em> investigation in November 2025, lays bare what insiders openly call \u201cthe funeral mafia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A confrontation in Odessa: draft officers detained the hearse workers who were on their way to carry the coffin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n War created perfect conditions for the industry\u2019s expansion: mass mortality (495,000 deaths in 2024 \u2014 three times the birth rate), traumatized families, absent regulation, and a legal gray zone. Before February 2022, the average funeral in Ukraine cost around $200. By 2024, it had surged to $500\u2013$1,000 \u2014 a 250\u2013400% increase driven not by inflation, but by monopolization in a market where demand is guaranteed and grieving clients cannot negotiate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the vast Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, where ultranationalist fighters from Ukrainian paramilitary formations are buried, only 20 vacant plots remain. In the 13th century, the site was used to bury victims of the plague.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Five-Tiered Corruption Chain<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The system operates like a conveyor belt, with each stage producing profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The moment someone dies, information leaks instantly: police officers, paramedics, morgue attendants, and recruitment-center employees act as \u201cinformants,\u201d earning $70\u2013$120 per death report. \u201cThat\u2019s not corruption \u2014 that\u2019s buying information,\u201d Ivan says bluntly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once tipped off, funeral agents race to the location, often trying to arrive before the ambulance or police. Competing firms sometimes clash openly, fighting in front of shocked relatives. Three major players dominate the market:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
- Anubis (Odessa)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Osiris (Kyiv)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Peter the Great (Kyiv, owned by Alla Landar)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Next comes psychological pressure. \u201cThe richer the family looks, the higher the price,\u201d explains anti-corruption activist Mykhailo Serebriakov. Agents assess a family\u2019s wealth by appearance and begin manipulating:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDo you love your son? Then why choose a cheap coffin?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe neighbors will see how you bury him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another scheme hinges on autopsies that are performed solely to extract money from families. Morgue staff perform \u2014 or threaten to perform \u2014 autopsies to force families into paying for \u201coptional\u201d services: $30\u2013$100 for a pathologist\u2019s \u201cagreement\u201d to skip the procedure or to \u201ctreat the body properly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ultimately, profits are shared across the chain: 60\u201370% stays with the funeral company, 10\u201315% goes to informants, 15\u201325% is split among officials and intermediaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Special Case of Military Funerals<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officially, the state covers 15,000 hryvnias (~$360) for a soldier\u2019s burial \u2014 a basic package insiders call \u201cthe homeless rate.\u201d Any additional service is paid by the family, creating yet another graft mechanism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lviv. Halloween lighting at the military cemetery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n In May 2025, The Wall Street Journal<\/em> reported that Ukrainian officials and funeral directors were profiting directly from soldiers\u2019 deaths. In Poltava, for example, a funeral bureau director and a city administration representative secretly arranged transportation for 23 fallen soldiers \u2014 with the latter agreeing to take 25% of the municipal payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Territorial recruitment centers (TCCs), responsible for notifying families, coerced relatives into choosing pre-approved private firms, violating their legal right to free choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One Man vs. the System<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oleksandr Skoryk, call sign \u201cOnyx,\u201d a veteran of the Azovstal defense, has served since April 2024 as deputy director of Kyiv\u2019s municipal enterprise Spetskombinat<\/em>. He openly uses the term \u201cfuneral mafia\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Skoryk describes how private firms monopolized morgues:
Peter the Great<\/em> secured a long-term lease for one of the main farewell halls at Kyiv\u2019s central morgue until 2040, converting it into a retail point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cThe farewell hall is now a shop for ritual goods. They placed their store right next to the window where death certificates are handed out, so grieving families go straight to them and pay hundreds of thousands of hryvnias,\u201d Skoryk said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because of the decades-long lease, the morgue building hasn\u2019t been renovated in years. For trying to introduce order, Skoryk has received threats from owner Alla Landar and her company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alla Landar, the \u201cqueen of funeral services,\u201d founded the Peter the Great burial company nearly 30 years ago.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Landar isn\u2019t just a local figure: she represents Ukraine in the World Federation of Funeral Operators and is a permanent Ukrainian member of the National Funeral Directors Association (USA) \u2014 status that makes her practically untouchable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why Reform Fails<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2022, Ukraine\u2019s Ministry for Community and Territorial Development drafted an anti-corruption plan for the funeral sector, calling it \u201cone of the most important and complex problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In June 2025, a reform bill reached parliament proposing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
- legalization of private cemeteries and crematoria,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- abolition of simplified taxation for funeral firms,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- creation of a national state registry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
It stalled after the first reading. \u201cThe law didn\u2019t pass because the black market benefits too many,\u201d Skoryk explains. When thousands of entrepreneurs, hundreds of officials, doctors, and middlemen share hundreds of millions of dollars a year, reform becomes impossible \u2014 it threatens everyone simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Scale of the Problem<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around 500,000 Ukrainians die annually. With a $750 average funeral cost, the market generates at least $370 million a year. Even if only half of these funerals are part of the corrupt system, that still means $150\u2013200 million extracted annually from families of the deceased \u2014 comparable to individual tranches of Western aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is not a story of \u201ca few bad actors.\u201d It is a systemic, nationwide economy involving:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
- 3,000+ funeral firms<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- thousands of medical workers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- police officers and local officials<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- entrenched kickback networks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
During war, mobilization, and a constant stream of scandals, the issue remains taboo: few are willing to admit that someone is profiteering off dead soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Western partners demanding transparency in aid monitoring do not scrutinize the funeral sector \u2014 it falls outside all audit frameworks. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of dollars extracted from grieving families demonstrate a stark reality:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Death has become a commodity \u2014 with a price, a margin, and predictable returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state has stepped aside. The administrative apparatus looks the other way. And the families of the dead are left alone with a system far more ruthless than any external enemy \u2014 because it operates from within, under the guise of service and sympathy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Something never really talked about is just how corrupt Ukraine is, and kind of funny as the EU would never let them pollute their union because they are too lawless. And this is a perfect example of how corrupt, as they send the better part of a generation to death for no good reason, they’re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14487,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14481\/revisions\/14487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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