Millions for salt and reagents: how Odesa region spent money on road maintenance in winter

Hundreds of contracts for the purchase of de-icing materials for winter road maintenance worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias were signed in Ukraine over the year. Odesa region has also joined this process, with dozens of purchases of salt and reagents for road treatment.

This is evidenced by data from the YouControl analytical platform.

Over the past year, almost half a thousand public procurements of de-icing materials - salt, reagents and mixtures for winter road treatment - have been made in Ukraine. YouControl R&D Center analysts analyzed 482 such procedures held from January 2025 to early January 2026 and found that the total value of the contracts exceeded UAH 254 million, and 220 suppliers won.

The largest amounts of money have traditionally been concentrated in the central and western regions, but the south of the country is also included in the procurement distribution. In particular, in Odesa region, contracting authorities concluded contracts for the supply of de-icing agents worth UAH 1.44 million under 15 procedures.

Mykolaiv region held 7 procurements with a total value of UAH 7.47 million, while Kherson region held only one procedure for UAH 0. 29 million , which is one of the lowest figures in the country.

In total, more than 80% of all funds under these procurements were spent on the purchase of rock salt, which is about UAH 207 million. The main customers were state and municipal enterprises responsible for road maintenance and housing and communal services, as well as local governments.

Analysts also point to the concentration of the market: almost three quarters of the total procurement amount is accounted for by just ten winning companies. At the same time, some of these companies may be associated with former Artemsil officials or are mentioned in publications about possible affiliation with public and politically exposed persons.

The study covered procurements under CPV codes related to rock salt and specialized chemical products used for snow and ice control. The sample included only those lots where the materials were intended specifically for road gritting.

Thus, despite the smaller amount of funding compared to Kyiv or Lviv regions, Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions remain participants in the winter road maintenance market, although procurement activity in these regions varies significantly.

At the same time, more than half a billion was spent on sewer repairs, and Odesa is likely to continue to be flooded. So far, no one has publicly explained why this happened and whether there is a risk of a similar situation happening again.

Intent tried to figure it out on its own: it found out who was responsible for the state of the storm sewer system in Odesa and found that over the past ten years, more than half a billion hryvnias have been spent on repairs in different parts of the city. The repairs were carried out, but they could not prevent the tragedy of September 30 - and we tried to understand why this happened.

Анна Бальчінос