Posad-Pokrovske: what about the reconstruction and who got hundreds of millions?

 

The village of Posad-Pokrovske of the Chornobaivka community has become one of the key objects of the state experimental project for the comprehensive reconstruction of deoccupied territories. According to the State Agency for Reconstruction, all 940 buildings were damaged in the fighting in 2022, of which 80% were completely destroyed. In the spring of 2023, construction of new homes began, but in 2024, work was suspended due to a lack of funding and a change in the leadership of the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in the Kherson region.

According to the Head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, 362 houses will be built in the village by the end of autumn 2025 after funding resumed in August 2024. Since the beginning of 2025, the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service has announced tenders for over UAH 1.8 billion for housing construction, road repair, gas supply reconstruction, the construction of an outpatient clinic, and a security center.


Secretary of the executive committee of the Chornobaivka village council, Alona Kalichenko, in a comment to Glavkom Media, noted that as of mid-spring 2025, 770 residents live in Posad-Pokrovske (before the full-scale invasion, there were over 2,100 residents).

We analyzed eight procurements of the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in the Kherson region, carried out in March-April 2025. They are concerned about constructing more than 330 houses in the village of Posad-Pokrovske in the Chornobaika community.

So, we have the following distribution of 8 procurements between contractors:

  1. TOV "EUROPEAN ROAD CONSTRUCTION COMPANY" received UAH 263,571,342.19.
  2. TOV "ROSTDORSTROY" received UAH 230,447,716.
  3. TOV "ENERGY-ROAD CONSTRUCTION" received UAH 248,947,460.35.
  4. TOV "Avtomagistral-Pivden" received UAH 347,256,388.

Let's consider each of the contractors in detail.

Two contracts, worth UAH 204,237,480.00 and UAH 59,333,862.19, were concluded by the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service with TOV "EUROPEAN ROAD CONSTRUCTION COMPANY"

The contractor is TOV "European Road Company".

According to the YouControl system, the company was registered in 2008. Initially, TOV "European Road Company" operated in Donetsk under the name "Altmost" and was part of the structure of the Altcom group of companies. After the armed conflict in 2014 and the occupation of Donetsk, the company was re-registered in Kyiv in 2016. Subsequently, in 2018, the owner changed - now the company is owned by Muslim Kieloiev through TOV "Peid".

Muslim Kieloiev, a Grozny native currently residing in the Odessa region, is the ultimate beneficiary of the company Whiteform Contracts Ltd, registered in Cyprus.

The activities of companies associated with Muslim Kieloiev were repeatedly mentioned in journalistic investigations both before and during the full-scale invasion.

In 2020, Nashi Groshi wrote about the NABU (National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine) case, in which the Dredging Fleet Branch of the State Enterprise Sea Ports Administration of Ukraine leased a dredger from Kieloiev’s company, Whiteform Contracts Ltd (Cyprus), for Euro 10.54 million, or UAH 351.38 million.

As for TOV "EUROPEAN ROAD CONSTRUCTION COMPANY" itself, it has also received several negative mentions in the media. For example, in Nikcenter investigations, it appears in purchases among the favorites of Mykolaiv road workers.

“Anticorruption Vymir” notes that TOV "EUROPEAN ROAD CONSTRUCTION COMPANY" is trying to lift the property seizure imposed by the court in the Vinnytsia region through the court. The fact is that TOV "EUROPEAN ROAD CONSTRUCTION COMPANY" provided its equipment to another company, against which law enforcement agencies are investigating a case of violation of the rules for the protection or use of subsoil and illegal mining of minerals.

According to the information provided, TOV “NVP Ukrekspertproekt” prepared the design and estimate documentation for these facilities.

According to the YouControl system, the company was established in 2020 in Kharkiv and later re-registered in Kyiv. Its owner is Yevheniia Mikhnovska, associated with several companies that have indirect ties to the family of People's Deputy Serhii Taruta. For example, through the company “Krymnasinniaprom,” the beneficiary of which is Kateryna Taruta.

The publication Anticorruption Vymir notes that in 2023–2024, the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service carried out 194 procurements for UAH 1.1 billion, and many of them were carried out without open competition, including those in which “Ukrekspertproekt” participated.


The Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in the Kherson region concluded two more contracts, worth UAH 194,210,352.00 and UAH 36,237,364.00, with TOV "ROSTDORSTROY" as the sole participant and winner of these tenders.

TOV "Rostdorstroy" was registered on August 16, 2005. The founder of the company is the Austrian company LLC "UTTEMA AU GmbH", and the ultimate beneficiaries are:

• Konovalov Yevhen - 50% of influence;

• Shumakher Yurii - 50% of influence, deputy of the Odessa City Council (fraction "Dovirai dilam").

According to 368.media, in 2023, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) found inaccurate information in Shumakher Yurii's declaration for UAH 25.14 million.

TOV "Rostdorstroy" appears in more than 430 media publications, many of which are related to scandals and journalistic investigations. As of May 2025, about 40 company mentions were recorded regarding questionable purchases and violations.

Among the striking examples:

Two tenders, for UAH 198,054,447 and UAH 50,893,013.35, were awarded to the sole participant and winner, TOV "ENERGY-ROAD CONSTRUCTION."

Regarding TOV "ENERGY-ROAD CONSTRUCTION": in 2023, criminal proceedings were initiated related to the possible embezzlement of budget funds for over UAH 780,000. According to the materials of the pre-trial investigation, the grounds for opening the case were signs of official forgery and misuse of funds under the contract concluded in 2022 between the company and the Highway Service in the Kharkiv region. The total cost of work under the agreement amounted to almost UAH 28 million and related to the operational maintenance of highways.

Investigators believe that the contractor company representative overstated the amount of work performed and materials used in the reporting, embezzling UAH 784,000 from the budget. The investigation is ongoing.

Since the beginning of the Great Construction and to this day, TOV "ENERGY-ROAD CONSTRUCTION" has been the subject of almost fifty journalistic investigations.


The Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in the Kherson region, with TOV "Avtomagistral-Pivden", concluded two tenders for UAH 309,180,000 and UAH 38,076,388.00.

This company also participated in the tender without any competitors.

TOV "Avtomagistral-Pivden" has more than 350 negative mentions in the media.

In addition, the company has several criminal proceedings. One of the latest is under Art. 191, Part 4 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, on misappropriation of property through abuse of official position during martial law (Part 4 of Art. 191, Part 4 of the Civil Code of Ukraine).

With the start of the implementation of the state initiative "Great Construction", launched at the beginning of the term of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, infrastructure projects have become one of the priorities of state policy. Significant amounts of funding were directed to the development of road infrastructure, and the primary recipients of contracts were companies affiliated with the National Association of Road Workers of Ukraine, including TOV "Avtomagistral-Pivden" and TOV "ROSTDORSTROI".

After the reorganization of Ukravtodor, its regional structures were transformed into Infrastructure restoration and development services, which are currently responsible for conducting tenders, selecting contractors, and implementing projects on the ground. In 2023, the focus of the Agency for Infrastructure Restoration and Development of Ukraine shifted to the reconstruction of energy facilities, housing, roads, bridges, and social infrastructure.

Despite institutional changes, the composition of the leading contracting organizations remained unchanged - most contracts, as before, are received by companies that traditionally worked in the road sector.


The online MEDIA “MOST” successfully explains such a situation.

They promised transparency and legality, but instead…

The private enterprise “Design, construction and assembly firm “Promalp” lost about UAH 1.2 million, agreeing to participate in a tender to repair damaged houses in the village of Posad-Pokrovske. This amount was named by the founder and acting director of the enterprise, Sviatoslav Olenkovskyi.

The company “Promalp” was among those who won the tender announced by the Infrastructure restoration and development services in the Kherson region for the overhaul of houses in the village of Posad-Pokrovske, which was damaged by Russian aggression.

Posad-Pokrovske is one of six settlements that were to be comprehensively rebuilt within the pilot project “Build Back Better.” The project was implemented in accordance with Government Resolution No. 382, “On the Implementation of a Pilot Project for the Restoration of Settlements Affected by the Armed Aggression of the Russian Federation.”

“I decided to participate in the tender,” says Sviatoslav Olenkovskyi, “after a conversation with Mustafa Naiem, the head of the State Agency for Infrastructure Restoration and Development. We talked during Naiem’s working trip to Odesa. He said that the tenders would be transparent in compliance with all legal requirements. So I decided to participate, despite my skeptical attitude towards state tenders.”

According to the tender terms, Promalp was to carry out a major renovation of 11 buildings. The total cost of the contract concluded with the company on January 2, 2024, is UAH 13.7 million.

“Since,” says Sviatoslav Olenkovskyi, “the tender was announced in 2023, and we signed the contract on January 2, 2024, we did not receive an advance payment, unlike other contractors who received it, and at the beginning of 2024, we already started work.”

The head of the Promalp enterprise says that he told the State Agency for Infrastructure Restoration and Development employees that an advance payment was necessary because, in 2022, the enterprise was in the occupied territory. Therefore, it did not work and consequently had a problem with working capital. In response, he heard that the program provides for an advance payment. Stanislav noted that the legislation prohibits construction and repair work under tenders without funding. In addition, an advance payment was specified in the contract.

“The officials “pressured” us, says Olenkovskyi, “they said, go out and work. But the design and estimate documentation we received was a complete mess. In fact, they never provided us with the project, although they were obliged to do so. And the estimate did not indicate some of the necessary work. There was a completely unqualified designer who, apparently, did not know that, for example, waterproofing needed to be laid under the metal tiles. The crate (the lattice structure that is the basis of the roof, - MOST) also had to be redone, because it was made for slate, and the project included metal tiles.

The entrepreneur says he was never paid for the work not included in the estimate, but was carried out because otherwise, the repair would have been impossible.

According to Sviatoslav Olenkovskyi, financing for his company was opened in the third decade of November 2024.

“And it turns out that we,” says the head of the Promalp enterprise, “were supposed to complete the annual volume of work by the end of the year. This is nonsense. In addition, the customer did not conduct a re-examination of the project. That is, there were still no necessary works we could not do without. In fact, we partially completed the work on three houses. We simply could not do it anymore physically. And for 2025, they did not extend our financing, terminated the contract, and took away the money deposited as a guarantee for the performance of the contract - 800 thousand hryvnias.”

From the restoration agency, the Promalp PE received UAH 275 000, and lost, according to the head, about UAH 1.2 million, that is, the money deposited as a tender guarantee and the unpaid payment for the performed, but necessary works that were not specified in the estimate.

“In addition,” says Sviatoslav Olenkovskyi, “we were not paid for the entire volume of the repaired roof. The estimate stated that there were 100 square meters, but there were 120. They were supposed to re-examine the documentation, make changes, and only then pay. We have performed unpaid work worth about 300-400 thousand hryvnias.”

The company went to court to defend its interests.

“I do not exclude,” says the head of Promalp Private Enterprise, “that they deliberately created a situation for us where the contract could not be fulfilled. To throw our company out and attract other companies. It is clear for what reasons.”


Conclusion

Monitoring public procurement in the village of Posad-Pokrovske revealed that contracts for constructing destroyed housing were concluded with companies with an ambiguous reputation, which was featured in numerous journalistic investigations and criminal proceedings.

The lack of competition in tenders, the contractors’ connections with politicians at various levels, and the questionable past of the companies jeopardize the transparency and effectiveness of the reconstruction of the deoccupied territories, requiring increased public control and attention from law enforcement agencies.

In addition, local residents have many questions for the state; there is a lack of understanding of the processes taking place with the reconstruction, and dissatisfaction exists. All this is evidence, first of all, of insufficient communication between the authorities and the community. Creating a clear communication strategy between local residents, government officials, and contractors is worth creating a clear communication strategy to avoid opacity and unreasonableness in costs and corruption risks.

The material was published thanks to the support of the Czech non-governmental organization NESEHNUTÍ within the framework of the Transformational Cooperation Program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.

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