Odesa-Kyiv repair contract for 800 million awarded without auction

The Service for Infrastructure Restoration and Development in Odesa Oblast has conducted a procurement to select a company that will be paid for the ongoing repair of sections of the Kyiv-Odesa highway.

According to the Center for Public Investigations, the relevant information was published in the Prozorro electronic procurement system.

It is about repairing certain sections of the highway, which is about 200 kilometers long. The procurement was conducted in the format of an open tender with special features, and the only participant was Avtomagistral-Pivden Limited Liability Company. The company will have to carry out routine road repairs until December 31, 2027, and expects to receive UAH 874.5 million for this.

According to the YouControl analytical system, until September 2022, the company was owned by Valeriy Korotkov and Oleh Nalyvanyi from Odesa. Currently, the ultimate beneficiaries are Oleksandr Boyko and the Austrian company EPC Construction Holding GmbH.

The company was one of the main contractors of the state program "Big Construction". In 2021 alone, it signed contracts worth UAH 58.9 billion, and the total amount of funds received through public procurement exceeds UAH 155 billion.

At the same time, questions have repeatedly arisen around the company regarding actual control. According to media reports, the likely unofficial beneficiary of the company may be businessman Oleksandr Zhukov, the former father-in-law of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

In October 2024, law enforcement officers searched the offices of Avtomagistral-Pivden LLC, as well as the homes of employees and vehicles.

In June 2025, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Kravchenko stated that the suspicions in the case against the company were reasonable and confirmed by the results of forensic examinations. He also instructed to check all criminal proceedings related to companies operating in the field of infrastructure construction.

At the same time, the company itself stated that it may be under pressure from law enforcement agencies and called such actions attempts at raider influence. Avtomagistral-Pivden LLC also noted that a targeted information campaign is being conducted around the Ingulets-Pivdenne Reservoir water pipeline project, which, in their opinion, may be backed by one of their competitors with the support of law enforcement officials associated with it.

Кирило Бойко