Police uncovered embezzlement during the reconstruction of a village in the Kherson region

The reconstruction of the war-ravaged village of Posad-Pokrovsky in the Kherson region has become the focus of a criminal investigation. Law enforcement officials are investigating whether public funds allocated for the village’s reconstruction may have been misused.

This is stated in a ruling by the Zavodskyi District Court of Mykolaiv

According to court documents, in 2025, the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in the Kherson region entered into 16 contracts with various contractors totaling approximately 1.6 billion hryvnias. The projects involved the construction of housing, a security center, and a clinic, as well as repairs to the street network and gas supply system.

One of the issues highlighted was advance payments. Under the contracts, contractors received over 482 million hryvnias in advance payments. Under the terms of the contracts, these funds were to be used within 180 calendar days and verified by certificates of completion.

However, the use of a portion of the advance payments was not confirmed by the relevant documents. The case file mentions over 337 million hryvnias that, at a certain stage, were not confirmed by certificates of completion.

Subsequently, the contractors returned a portion of the unused funds to the client. According to data cited in the court ruling, a total of over 259 million hryvnias in advance payments was returned under a number of contracts.

Investigators took a particular interest in one of the contracts, signed on May 9, 2025. Under this contract, the client transferred 11.4 million hryvnias in advance payments to the contractor. Part of the amount was substantiated by certificates of completion, and the unused balance was subsequently returned.

Law enforcement officials determined that one of the companies receiving funds from the client was conducting financial transactions with another company—it was specifically regarding this company’s accounts that the court authorized the retrieval of banking information.

Investigators are interested in where the funds received by the contractors as an advance payment for reconstruction work might have gone next. In particular, they want to examine transfers between companies, the purpose of the payments, the contracts on which the transactions were based, as well as any subsequent transfers of funds to other accounts.

Separately, law enforcement officials will verify whether budget funds were used for transactions unrelated to the reconstruction of Posad-Pokrovsky. Potential areas of investigation include the use of funds to fulfill other contracts, repay debts, or place funds in deposits. Ultimately, the court granted access to the documents.

As reported by Intent, in April, law enforcement uncovered alleged embezzlement of funds during the reconstruction of the water supply system in Posad-Pokrovskyi, where they identified inflated material costs as well as incomplete execution of the planned work.

Also, in July,Oleksandr Rusnak, deputy head of the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in the Kherson region, was charged with official negligence during the implementation of a project to rebuild private homes in Posad-Pokrovskyi. 

Анна Бальчінос