NGL.media: Employees of Ukraineʼs largest orphanage received salaries and bonuses for over 3 years, even though there were no children there

Employees of Ukraineʼs largest orphanage “Sonechko” located in Zaporizhzhia received hundreds of millions of hryvnias from the budget, although all the children there were evacuated to the Lviv region in the first weeks of the Russian invasion.

This is stated in the NGL.media investigation.

Thus, over two and a half years, more than UAH 230 million were spent on maintaining an empty orphanage. Of this amount, UAH 212 million were spent on staff payments.

The evacuation of children from the orphanage began only in mid-March 2022. The 13 children were accompanied by only one doctor out of 424 employees. From "Sonechko" they moved to the Lviv orphanage "Malva".

In total, 178 children under the age of six were taken from “Sonechko” in March 2022. All of them were officially registered in this orphanage, although they actually lived in the Lviv region.

Doctor Olha Revchenko still stays with the children, and other employees of the institution remained in Zaporizhzhia "on standby" from 2022 to 2025.

According to Oksana Naidyonova, the former deputy director of the Zaporizhzhia childrenʼs home, these people did not work, but received two-thirds of their salary.

In total, for almost three years, “Sonechko” budget amounted to 297 million hryvnias, of which 233 million hryvnias were spent.

According to documents available to journalists, in September 2024 alone, the amount of bonuses to employees amounted to more than UAH 800 000. 11 employees received additional payments for an unexpected reason — in honour of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. At least, this is the reason for the bonuses.

In total, almost 100 employees received a bonus that month. The largest amount — a total of UAH 31 000 — went to the then deputy director Oksana Naidyonova. She also awarded bonuses to most employees.

Naidyonova refused to elaborate on the exact principle by which these funds were accrued. She says she doesnʼt remember the details. Since the beginning of this year, the woman has been working at another job.

At the same time, all expenses for the evacuated children fell on the shoulders of Lviv institutions. The children were provided with food, clothing, and even the premises where they lived were renovated. Charitable foundations, in particular "Happy Sun", provided additional assistance.

At the same time, Sonechko in Zaporizhzhia continued to spend millions on utilities and its own staff, who no longer worked with children.

At the end of December 2024, the Zaporizhzhia Regional Childrenʼs Hospital announced that the “Sonechko” orphanage would be closed. Part of its functionality was transferred to the Zaporizhzhia Regional Childrenʼs Clinical Hospital. The institution was officially closed in June 2025.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.