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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
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THREE CONTRACTORS, ONE WINNER, ZERO TENDERS. HOW SHKIL TOOK THE ENTIRE PIPELINE
In the fall of 2024, three contractors were building the water pipeline for Mykolaiv. By the spring of 2025 only one remained: Maksym Shkil’s group “Avtostrada.” The competitors were paid 130 thousand hryvnias each and their contracts were terminated, and new contracts worth 6,23 billion were awarded without Prozorro.
Mykolaiv had been living without proper drinking water since 2022, after Russia destroyed the old pipeline. The new one was to run from the Southern Bug near Nova Odesa. In the fall of 2024, the State Restoration Authority split the construction into three sections: Avtostrada, Odesa’s Rostdorstroy, and Ukrtransmist.
Then, according to Nashi Hroshi and dengi.ua, events unfolded like this. The Mykolaiv restoration service did not agree to a new procurement. In March 2025 the customer was simply changed to the Dnipropetrovsk service. The results of the old tenders were canceled, contracts with two contractors were terminated, and each was paid 130 thousand. On 10 April all three sections went to Avtostrada outside the electronic procurement system, that is, with no competition. The next day the contractor was advanced 2,5 billion. The customer’s explanation: it had to be built quickly.
Now the figures to look at closely. The total project cost fell from 7,44 to 6,23 billion. But the pipeline’s capacity was cut by a quarter: instead of 160 thousand cubic meters per day it is 120 thousand. And Avtostrada’s own section did not get cheaper but more expensive: from 2,28 to 2,76 billion, almost by half a billion. A year earlier Avtostrada’s steel pipes cost roughly one and a half times more than those of competitors. Which pipes and at what price are specified now is not publicly known. Later the company received about another billion for additional works.
This is not Shkil’s first large state contract. Avtostrada built the Zaporizhzhia–Tomakivka–Marhanets pipeline, launched in June 2024. In Kyiv the company in 2024 won a tender and signed a contract with the metro to complete the Vynohradar line for 13,8 billion. Searches at the company took place in the spring of 2024. Shkil then told Forbes that the claims were dropped after examinations, and that the investigation has been forcing him to hire teams of lawyers for years.
We are not talking about a conviction. There is none. We are talking about the mechanics visible in the documents. When the customer is changed because the old one did not agree. When competitors are removed for 130 thousand. When capacity falls by a quarter while the price of your section rises by half a billion. When all this happens outside Prozorro because “it had to be quick.” Separately such decisions can be explained. Together they form a picture that law enforcement agencies are obliged to check.
And here is the main question: how much longer will NABU, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the security services ignore this lawlessness by Shkil? Especially now that his “cover” is leaking.
Mykolaiv got water, and that is good. The only question is how much the state overpaid per cubic meter.
Speed without competition is always paid for by those who weren’t invited to the table.
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