CTO of Relief Paper Valentyn Frechka reported that they want to take away his business: according to him, the conflict has been going on for five months, and he has lost access to the startup’s key infrastructure and social networks.
CTO of Relief Paper Valentyn Frechka reported that they want to take away his business: according to him, the conflict has been going on for five months, and he has lost access to the startup’s key infrastructure and social networks.
In a comment to Vector, Frechka noted that this summer the company made an operational decision to change the CEO.
«This is an action to stabilize operations and protect the company’s interests after a series of unambiguous actions by the co-founder that threatened the intellectual rights and resources of the business. The conflict arose in the French company Releaf Paper France SAS, where I own 50,1% of the shares, and Mr. Sobolenko (another co-founder — Ed.) — 49,9%. The first serious disagreements appeared in the spring of 2025 against the background of management disputes and an unsuccessful investment campaign led by Mr. Sobolenko,» Frechka said.
In addition, according to Frechka, at the same time he discovered that the second co-founder, Oleksandr Sobolenko, initiated other business activities (including companies in Estonia and Ukraine) and demanded the transfer of part of the assets and TM in favor of these structures, which raised concerns about a conflict of interest.
So in June-July 2025, as the majority shareholder, Frechka turned to corporate lawyers and on July 17, 2025, initiated a change of officials — he became the executive director.
At the same time, CEO Oleksandr Sobolenko denies the co-founder’s accusations: according to him, the conflict began after he learned about Frechka’s uncoordinated actions aimed at removing him from managing the company and changing the ownership structure.
«I insisted on reviewing roles and responsibilities, but a fundamental difference in vision arose among the founders. Releaf turned from a business project, as I built it, into a platform for scientific experiments, so after that my mission there ended. It developed into a conflict solely due to the unwillingness to negotiate and attempts to resolve everything through legal and public pressure,» Sobolenko noted.
Currently, the co-founders also have different positions on other companies in the business structure and who should own the social networks.
According to Frechka, negotiations between the co-founders have taken place and a number of meetings have been held, but no consensus has been reached yet, and neither side is satisfied with the proposed terms and the way out of the situation. He added that, in his opinion, the legal path is the only real way to resolve the situation.
At the same time, Sobolenko is ready to leave Releaf «on fair terms, commensurate with his contribution to the creation and development of the company.» He noted that he is not going to «give the company away, as was offered to him under pressure.»
Last fall, dev.ua wrote that the Ukrainian eco-startup Releaf Paper, which processes fallen leaves into paper, launched production in France, and in the next five years, the company plans to launch leaf processing throughout Europe.
We also reported that the Ukrainian eco-startup Releaf Paper, which began as a school project by Valentyn Frechka, who developed a unique technology for making paper from fallen leaves, plans to develop a new type of raw material.
