Odesa allocates UAH 10 million to repair nine-story building damaged by drone

The Department of City Improvement of Odesa City Council has signed an agreement with Hi-Tech Elite-Stroy LLC to repair a residential building at 3 Oleksandr Kutuzakia Street.

The relevant information was published in the Prozorro electronic procurement system.

The procurement was conducted in the format of an open tender with special conditions, so the company had no competitors. The company has to complete the liquidation of the shelling consequences by December 31, 2025, and is supposed to receive UAH 10 million 110.9 thousand for this.

According to YouControl, High-Tech Elite-Stroy was registered in September 2018. Its founder is Mykola Rozhko, and the head is Oleh Hryhorovych.

In July, the same company was awarded a contract to repair another building that suffered from shelling at 61 Serednyi Street. That procurement was also conducted in the format of an open tender with special conditions and without competitors. The amount of money involved was UAH 11 million 629 thousand 379.

As a result of the drone hitting the house on Oleksandr Kutuzakiy Street, the structures of three floors of the second entrance - 6, 7 and 8 - completely collapsed, and the supporting walls, stairwells and ceilings were damaged. Experts conducted a technical inspection of the building and assessed its condition as unstable, with a gradual vertical subsidence of the floor slabs.

The Commission for Technogenic and Environmental Safety and Emergencies recognized the second entrance as an emergency, as the building may partially collapse. All residents of the building were evacuated. They were offered temporary accommodation with relatives, friends or community centers.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, the residents of the building said that after the hit, representatives of the municipality did not contact them in any way and limited themselves to posting guards and brewing the doors. Later, the applicants reported that the officials got in touch and provided the necessary explanations.

Two days after the hit, on July 26, a balcony on the ninth floor of the same high-rise collapsed. A massive drone attack on Odesa on July 24 damaged residential buildings, causing large-scale fires and destruction, including in a high-rise building. At least three people were injured, five were rescued from the rubble, and the city suffered significant damage to its civilian infrastructure.

A nine-story residential building sustained the most damage. In one of the entrances, apartments from the 5th to the 8th floor were completely destroyed, and fires broke out on the 5th and 6th floors. Five people were rescued from the blocked apartments, and 33 others were evacuated. The State Emergency Service set up an Unbreakable Point near the building, and psychologists from the State Emergency Service and the National Police worked with the residents.

The rubble was difficult to clear because of the high probability of collapse - the movement of structures is recorded by special seismographic equipment. Dog handlers were engaged to search for possible victims. In the evening of the same day, rescuers removed the body of the deceased from the rubble of the high-rise building. The victim was 32 years old.

Кирило Бойко