04 November 2025
(The destroyed bridge. PHOTO: DREAM)
Kherson region is planning to allocate more than UAH 340 million to restore the bridge destroyed by hostilities near the village of Kalynivske, but the reconstruction is fraught with corruption risks and investigations.
This was reported by analysts of the Center for Public Investigations.
The state institution "Local Roads of Kherson Region" signed an agreement for more than UAH 330 million with the company "Avtomagistral-Pivden" LLC, which was the only bidder. The total estimated cost of the project is UAH 343 million. Although the reconstruction work began only in December 2024, the contract was signed in April 2023.
SCREEN SHOT: DREAM
The legality of this procurement was challenged in court. The deputy head of the Kherson Regional Prosecutor's Office filed a lawsuit with the Commercial Court of Odesa Oblast, demanding the contract be canceled. The prosecutor noted that the procuring entity had illegally failed to reject Avtomagistral-Pivden's proposal and violated the rules for determining the expected value. However, in March 2024, the court dismissed the claim in its entirety.
Avtomagistral-Pivden is one of the major contractors of the Big Construction and has earned more than UAH 158 billion from public tenders. At the same time, the firm is constantly in the spotlight of law enforcement: the company is involved in criminal proceedings, including a lawsuit over the reconstruction of the Ivanivskyi overpass in Odesa for UAH 1.6 billion.
In 2024-2025, the company's offices were searched, and Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko confirmed that the suspicions in the case were legitimate and reasonable.
The situation with the bridge in Kalynivske is illustrative, as at the end of October, contracts worth more than UAH 800 million in Kherson region were awarded to only two contractors who had previously been repeatedly investigated for misappropriation of budget funds.
Катерина Глушко