❗️ Road blindness: NABU defendant MP Labaziuk continues to receive billion-hryvnia road contracts in Khmelnytskyi regio...

❗️ Road blindness: NABU defendant MP Labaziuk continues to receive billion-hryvnia road contracts in Khmelnytskyi region

At the beginning of August, Khmelnytskyi region was shaken by a major corruption scandal. SBU and Office of the Prosecutor General investigators exposed a kickback scheme for repairing local roads. The investigation’s figures included Deputy Head of the Khmelnytskyi Regional Military Administration Vladyslav Faliush and Acting Director of the Regional Service of Local Roads Dmytro Avramenko. According to investigators, the officials systematically demanded 5% of the value of each contract from contractors as “facilitation” for signing agreements and the unobstructed allocation of budget funds. Later, a detained regional administration official had bail posted in the amount of almost 5 million hryvnias, and law enforcement reported a successful fight against the embezzlement.

However, while some figures are publicly detained, the real heavyweights of road contracting continue to unobstructedly absorb billion-hryvnia budgets. Already in the second half of August, the Service for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure in Khmelnytskyi region held large tenders for road maintenance totaling more than 3,7 billion hryvnias, planned through the summer of 2028.

One of the central figures in this road giveaway once again was single-mandate MP from Khmelnytskyi region Serhii Labaziuk. The lion’s share of state contracts was won by the company LLC “Dorozhni Mashyny” (Road Machines), which is backed by the MP-controlled holding Vitagro. The statutory capital of this firm is only 25 thousand hryvnias, and its main listed activity is renting construction equipment, which did not stop it from taking million-hryvnia contracts for road repairs. Labaziuk’s firm won one of the Service’s three major lots for road maintenance in Khmelnytskyi region worth 1,16 billion hryvnias.

Meanwhile, the family’s political influence in the region remains unquestionable: the MP’s wife, Violeta Labaziuk, holds the position of Chair of the Khmelnytskyi Regional Council.

Interestingly, “Dorozhni Mashyny” began actively winning state tenders precisely after the previous road flagship associated with the MP came under the scrutiny of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Serhii Labaziuk himself is currently an official defendant in a criminal proceeding by NABU and SAP. He is accused of attempting to bribe top officials — the MP allegedly offered 150 thousand dollars in undue advantage to then Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov and the head of the State Agency for Restoration Mustafa Nayyem in exchange for assistance in winning state road tenders.

Labaziuk’s case is now at the stage of judicial review. However, being a figure in a high-profile anti-corruption investigation in no way prevents the MP from continuing to receive new contracts.

The remaining lots in Khmelnytskyi region were divided between Maksym Shkil’s company “Avtostrada” and the firm “Budinterkomplekt” of local developer Mykola Dolinskyi.

The picture is highly telling: law enforcement demonstratively detains smaller regional officials over 5-percent kickbacks. Meanwhile, an MP under criminal suspicion for bribery in government offices continues to calmly absorb budget billions in Khmelnytskyi region.

In essence, we see that the system displays a striking selective blindness — some are noticed and taken into custody, while others are handed new billion-hryvnia contracts for future budgets at a time when the country’s defense budget deficit reaches 1,2 trillion hryvnias.