Road contract in Odesa port won by a company with a history of fraud

A public tender worth UAH 24 million may end up in the pocket of a company with a rich history of scandals. The company regularly finds itself at the center of journalistic investigations and court cases.

This was reported by Intent with reference to the Prozorro procurement system.

At the end of September, the Odesa branch of the State Enterprise "Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority" (USPA) announced a tender for construction works on the overhaul of the company's highways. It concerns the second and third stages of construction with the inventory number 068590. More than UAH 24 million has been allocated for the project, and the deadline for completion of the works is December 31, 2026.

Despite the significant amount, only one company, Avtomagistral-Zakhid LLC, took part in the tender, which is why the auction did not take place. This situation has become commonplace for this contractor, which regularly receives large contracts without competition.

SCREENSHOT: Prozorro

According to the media outlet Vgoru, the company was registered in Ternopil in 2010 under the name Bioresurs-Energia. The founders were Vira Barchuk and Yurii Khanin. In 2017, the company changed its name to Avtomagistral-Zakhid, and in 2022, the sole founder was Oleh Barchuk, a former head of the Zalishchyky District State Administration under Yanukovych and head of the local Party of Regions organization.

In June 2023, the company changed ownership again: now the sole founder is Serhiy Yuzvishyn, and Artem Pushkar is the director. At the same time, the company moved from Ternopil region to the village of Verenchanka in Bukovyna.

According to the YouControl monitoring system, in 2025 alone, Avtomagistral-Zakhid@ received government orders for more than UAH 1.1 billion, while the company's total revenue since 2017 has been about UAH 1.2 billion.

Journalists have previously reported that the company participated in tenders with fictitious equipment, had significant debts and was involved in manipulating tender procedures. In particular, companies affiliated with its executives used a scheme to divide roads into hundreds of small sections to avoid open bidding in Prozorro. Such small deals allowed them to sign contracts directly, without competition, even though the total amount of contracts reached tens of millions of hryvnias.

SCREENSHOT: YouControl

Avtomagistral-Zakhid also has ties to the newly created Imperialbud consortium, which is also controlled by Serhiy Yuzvishyn. Over the past year, firms associated with him have won public tenders for more than UAH 1 billion.

The firm also appears in the court materials of the Kherson City Court of August 19, 2025. The NGO Platform Public Control stated that employees of the Kherson Children's Regional Hospital, together with representatives of Avtomagistralia-Zakhid, allegedly developed a scheme to overstate the cost of work during the reconstruction of the emergency department. It was about more than UAH 1.3 million in possible losses due to manipulation of prices for materials and work performed.

Although the court refused to oblige the police to enter this data into the URPTI, the same hospital later terminated the contract with the company for UAH 135 million due to the violations. The auditors noted that the contractor used equipment from countries banned from EU co-financing programs and did not have adequate proven experience.

Анна Бальчінос