The Esculab laboratory network plans to resume operations in Kyiv and Kyiv region in the coming days after an attempted raider takeover, and to expand the network in the region to more than 100 collection points by the end of the year.

"We currently have 32 collection points (in Kyiv and the region), and we plan to open another 70 by the end of the year. We will definitely return to work next week, and in the near future we will stabilize the situation and begin collecting biomaterial from our patients," said the network's operational director Svitlana Zinchenko at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Monday.

In turn, the head of the legal department of Esculab, Andriy Zborivsky, reported that during the attempts to illegally take over the company by its co-founders Stanyslav Luhovsky and Denys Melnyk, "there is a massive and systematic violation of cash discipline and tax evasion at the biomaterial collection points."

"We contacted the tax authorities, inspections were carried out based on our requests, three violations of cash discipline were established in two days of such inspections. The facts of violations are recorded and transferred to law enforcement agencies. The perpetrators will be held accountable, including criminally," he said.

He also reported that the activities of Esculab are blocked by MZ Group, which provided Esculab with IT services.

"MZ Group blocked the accounts of all employees of Esculab Center. As a result of such actions, it became impossible to perform laboratory tests of biomaterial that was collected from thousands of patients," he said.

Zborivsky noted that "there are facts of blocking biomaterial in Lviv and Kyiv laboratories of the network," and the heads of the Kyiv and Lviv laboratories hid patients' biomaterial.

"These illegal actions posed a threat to the health and lives of patients, since many patients demanded immediate results, including while in hospitals. According to these facts, there were corresponding appeals to law enforcement agencies and criminal investigations were opened," he said.

"The management of the Esculab laboratory in Kyiv region is taking all necessary actions to eliminate the negative consequences of such illegal actions, restore the company's activities and perform laboratory research," he said.

Zborivsky emphasized that "the laboratory is taking all possible actions to ensure that the perpetrators are held accountable under the law."

In turn, the head of the business analytics department of the Esculab laboratory, Yuliana Dutko, clarified that from July 19 to July 25, interventions were made in the laboratory's information system, which blocked it, "first of all, the accounts of director Serhiy Diadiushko, operational director Svitlana Zinchenko, employees of collection points and office workers were blocked."

In addition, according to Dutko, "the partners reached the apogee of their immorality and manually deleted registered orders."

"We have confirmation that all these actions were carried out by employees of Ihor Malynovsky's MZ Group," she said.

Dutko also reported that employees of collection points received instructions from Stanyslav Luhovsky not to process payments for tests through the system, thus avoiding taxation. At the same time, a backup data storage was used to perform this manipulation.

"In particular, we recorded at one of the points that the total payment for tests amounted to more than UAH 10,000, while taxes were paid for UAH 210," she said.

For his part, the director of Esculab Center, Serhiy Diadiushko, noted that the raiders' actions "caused enormous reputational damage to the laboratory, which is difficult to assess."

"This is not just a corporate conflict. This is about the fact that patients were involved in this conflict, and this puts their lives and health at risk. Patients are postponing surgeries and visits to doctors due to an artificially created situation, while Luhovsky and Melnyk are withdrawing millions of hryvnias from Esculab in Lviv," Diadiushko emphasized.

As reported, at the end of July, the Esculab laboratory network suspended operations in Kyiv due to a conflict that arose between the owner of the network, Serhiy Diadiushko, and its co-founders Stanyslav Luhovsky and Denys Melnyk. The laboratory's software administrator was Luhovsky's cousin, Ihor Malynovsky.

The conflict between the co-founders of the Esculab network arose in 2023, when Luhovsky and Melnyk attempted to re-register Diadiushko's share for their name and remove him from the network.

The medical laboratory Esculab is one of the three largest private laboratories in Ukraine, contracted by the National Health Service of Ukraine.