In occupied Sevastopol, another infrastructure project has turned into an endless construction project. The high-pressure gas pipeline, which was supposed to be critical for the city's energy stability, has not been completed for eight years.
Eight years after the first attempt at construction, the Russian authorities of the city have reappointed a contractor to build a strategic ring gas pipeline from Balaklava to Kozacha Bay. The new contract, signed at the end of December 2025, was valued at almost 3 billion rubles. This means that the cost of the project has increased six and a half times compared to 2017, when the price was 466 million rubles.
The implementation of this facility turned into a series of managerial failures and financial scandals. In 2018, it turned out that due to designers' mistakes, the pipeline route ran through private land, even though millions had been spent on paperwork. The first contractor managed to lay only 7 kilometers of pipes out of the planned 31, after which work stopped due to strikes by workers who were not paid. Since 2019, the welded structures of the unfinished gas pipeline have been lying in trenches in the open air.
This facility is critically important for Sevastopol, as the city is a 'dead end' point on the gas supply route, which leads to unstable pressure in the networks. The ring gas pipeline would balance the system and provide fuel to remote areas such as Fiolent. However, the occupation administration was unable to establish the process for years, constantly changing designers and contractors, and the documentation itself was eventually recognized as untenable.
Under the new contract, the construction was again extended for years. Until the end of 2026, the contractor will only conduct new engineering surveys and develop another project, and the direct launch of the facility is now planned for the end of 2029. Thus, the infrastructure project, which was promised to be completed in 2018, has turned into another large-scale long-term construction project, the reasons for which the occupation authorities do not explain.
