Projects to restore shelled buildings in Odesa were awarded to an entrepreneur with a business in the Donetsk region

In Odesa, a newly established entrepreneur with ties to business in the temporarily occupied territory and the Donetsk People's Republic receives contracts from the city authorities without competition to design the reconstruction of buildings damaged by Russian shelling. In six months, he has already signed 10 contracts directly with the Department of Municipal Economy of the Odesa City Council.

This was reported by Anti-Corruption Dimension.

We are talking about Ihor Kamalov, a private entrepreneur registered at the end of June 2025. According to the analytical platforms YouControl and Clarity Project, the department is the only customer of this entrepreneur. All agreements were concluded without competitive procedures, and even the contracts themselves or annexes to them were not published in the system.

Officials ordered design and estimate documentation from the sole proprietor for the restoration of at least ten apartment buildings in Odesa, including on Serednofontanska Street, Oleksandriyskyi and Voznesenskyi Lane, Desantnyi Boulevard, Akademika Koroliova, Kosmonavtiv and Yukhym Fesenko Streets. Some of these buildings were damaged as a result of Russia's armed aggression.

Analytical data shows that Kamalov has a number of companies registered both in Ukraine and under Russian law. In particular, he is registered in Kyiv as Donavtodorproekt LLC, which was previously registered in the settlements of Donetsk region. At the same time, the Russian register contains LLC DDS with similar activities, co-owned by Ihor and Maksym Kamalov. According to Russian open sources, this company received millions in revenue in 2024 and paid taxes to the Russian budget.

In addition, Maksym Kamalov is listed as the head of another Ukrainian company, Antares-SV LLC, whose founders also include Ihor Kamalov. Some of these companies have previously participated in tenders in Donetsk region, and the total amount of contracts signed reaches tens of millions of hryvnias.

As noted in the editorial, they are preparing an appeal to the Security Service of Ukraine and have sent an official request to the Odesa City Council to explain whether officials are aware of possible ties between their contractor and the aggressor country.

The entrepreneur himself confirmed that he was developing project documentation for Odesa officials. However, after being asked about his connection to the DDS company registered in the Russian register, the entrepreneur stopped communicating.

Also in Odesa, a contract was announced for the reconstruction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs buildings. The contract for more than 55 million hryvnias went to the company that appeared in the Mindich tapes.

Анна Бальчінос