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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Underground oligarch. Part 2. Komarnytsky in Vienna, Shkil on the bridge
Everyone writes about Shkil: water mains, the subway, the cemetery, the state's debts. But one name is whispered in his story. Denys Komarnytsky, whom journalists for years called the “watcher” of Kyiv. We explain how their paths crossed on one bridge.
Komarnytsky's bridge
The Podilsko-Voskresensky Bridge is the capital’s most expensive long-term construction. 2017 the general contractor for 6,1 billion UAH becomes Eco-Bud-Trade. Without Prozorro. EP names Komarnytsky and Vadym Stolar as beneficiaries. The company has 12 employees; Bihus.Info called it the “general spender.”
2021 the Antimonopoly Committee fines Eco-Bud-Trade 182,6 million for collusion in tenders related to this bridge. The city does not terminate the contract. The SBU reports 153 million embezzled, the prosecutor’s office — an attempt to embezzle 3 billion. Suspicions are filed against the directors of the general contractor and the municipal customer.
2023. Relay
When law enforcement comes to Eco-Bud-Trade, Avtostrada appears at the site. As a subcontractor “at Eco-Bud-Trade’s request.” Shkil’s condition: payments directly from the city budget. Formally the bridge still belongs to Komarnytsky’s company; in practice Shkil receives the money. Who at the Kyiv City State Administration approved this and for what amount is not publicly known.
In March 2026 Eco-Bud-Trade is declared bankrupt. Debts exceed 3 billion; the prosecutor’s office demands the return of another 10,6 billion for invalid contracts. A company that will return nothing, and a company that will continue everything. The perfect pair.
2025. One flees, the other wins
6 February 2025 NABU announces suspicion against Komarnytsky in the “Clean City” case about land corruption in the Kyiv City Council. 11 February he is taken to the border. According to Ukrainska Pravda, the passage to Romania was provided by two employees of the DSR. They were dismissed; the department head remained. Komarnytsky surfaces in Vienna. In September NABU investigators search his residence there; in October the 2026-th case is sent to court.
And Shkil? Four months after the escape, on 11 June 2025 Avtostrada becomes the sole participant in the tender to finish the Podil bridge for 1,18 billion UAH. There are no competitors.
A case that fell asleep
July 2025: Kyiv police open proceedings regarding Avtostrada’s Podil bridge and water mains. 5 August — searches. Then silence. No charges.
Look at the picture. For land in the Kyiv City Council, NABU tracked down Komarnytsky even in Vienna. For the bridge that investigators say was embezzled for years, only company directors are held responsible. And the person who came to this bridge at Komarnytsky’s request and receives billions for it remains outside all suspicions.
We have no evidence that Shkil shared money with Komarnytsky. But we have questions for NABU, the prosecutor’s office, and the Kyiv City State Administration. Who approved the transfer of the bridge from the fined contractor to Shkil with direct payments from the budget? How much has he already received? And why did the case fall asleep after the searches?
Next: the underground billionaire, an offshore in the Pandora Papers, an estate in the woods, and law enforcement officers who stay silent.
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