The head of the volunteer medical battalion "Hospitallers" Yana Zinkevych said that their fees will be audited by an auditing company. This happened after accusations against the battalion of non-transparent use of funds.
Zinkevych said this at a briefing at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center on May 1.
According to her, the company “Kreston Ukraine” was hired to conduct the audit. Its executive director Andriy Popov stated at a briefing that the auditors had already completed the audit of the first program — the multi-million-dollar collection of the “Hospitallers” for the organizationʼs new base.
Popov said that the audit confirmed the correctness of the meetings, record keeping and the targeted use of funds. In the coming months, the company plans to check virtually all the meetings of the "Hospitallers" for the past period. After the audit is completed, the results will be published on the official resources of the battalion.
Zinkevych herself, commenting on the collection for a new base for the organization to replace the destroyed one in Pavlohrad, said that she opened it in April 2025 for the amount of UAH 20 million on her official volunteer card. By August 16, people had collected UAH 15.5 million, which she transferred to the SE "Center for Physical and Mental Rehabilitation", which concluded an agreement with the owner of the premises.
At the same time, the collection continued, and by March 7, 2026, an additional UAH 2 287 662 had been collected. Zinkevych says she also transferred this money to the SE, after which she stopped collecting.
According to her, from these additional funds, the NGO paid for the development of a preliminary reconstruction project (UAH 1.4 million) and a project for electrical solutions (UAH 873 000). The total cost of the purchase agreement for the new base, including taxes, notary services, an architectural plan, and part of the technical communications projects, was UAH 17 780 757.
"Now our task is to make the base completely autonomous and independent of external circumstances. Therefore, I have announced a new collection of UAH 20 million for part of the payments for necessary projects and their implementation. They will be spent on wells, sewage, hot and cold water supply, electricity, generators, solar panels, landscaping of the territory, and more. This is a strategic investment in the future of the ʼHospitallersʼ. Whether we can continue to save lives depends on this. There are also plans to create a rehabilitation center at the new base," Zinkevych said.
What preceded
The scandal surrounding the volunteer medical battalion "Hospitallers" and its leader Yana Zinkevych erupted in March. Journalist Olha Khudetska wrote on social media that she would like to see the “Hospitallers” reporting on their fees for fuel, tactical medicine, and other needs.
Olha Khudetska also raised questions about the confusing legal structure surrounding the “Hospitallers”. Indeed, the registers contain more than ten different organizations that are associated with the “Hospitallers” and whose leaders are relatives of Yana Zinkevych — and only one of them publishes official reports.
In addition, volunteer Oleksiy "Aristarch" Tsymbalyuk accused the "Hospitallers" of illegally holding a volunteer named Dmytro "Kavkaz" Horyaninov "in the pit" in 2014, after which he committed suicide.
The scandal immediately became politicized, as Yana Zinkevych is a member of parliament from the EU faction. Several prominent members of this faction, former and current paramedics of the “Hospitallers” and other units, spoke out in her defense, saying that accusing a volunteer military structure of something without direct evidence is unethical.
Zinkevych herself commented on the accusations against the “Hospitallers” as follows: "We are a militarized unit, like the Third Assault Brigade or Charter. And we have a completely different type of reporting than ordinary public organizations, such as the foundations of Serhiy Prytula or Serhiy Sternenko."
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