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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The company – a subject of criminal proceedings and journalistic investigations – continues to win multimillion-hryvnia public contracts for civil protection and education facilities in Kherson region.
Despite a guilty verdict and a number of criminal and administrative cases involving the company’s officials; projects not completed on time and, consequently, contracts terminated by the client; journalistic investigations into signs of inflated costs of building materials at sites in various regions of Ukraine, Nikopolska-STK LLC continues to receive multimillion contracts. The latest is for the nearly 27 million reconstruction of a workshop building to create a support kitchen at Velykooleksandrivskyi Lyceum in Kherson region.
This is the well-known Velykooleksandrivska Secondary School No.2 in the region, which was granted lyceum status a year ago. Even during the intense war, large-scale displacement and remote learning, at least 600 students receive an education here each year, their teams win competitions and contests, and two-thirds of graduates enter higher education institutions. This year, as Center for Investigative Journalism director of the lyceum Nataliya Petryk told us, 613 students were studying at the school, and there were four graduating classes of 11 grade. A similar number of students is expected in the new school year.
Velykooleksandrivka community is regularly visited by government officials and representatives of international organizations and donor funds, to whom they show the successful progress of infrastructure restoration and new construction projects. Velykooleksandrivskyi Lyceum is a mandatory stop on such visits. Currently, work is being carried out here on three large projects totaling nearly 275 million hryvnias, and one more tender — for nearly 9 million — is awaiting proposals.
The “Sokoliata” squad of Velykooleksandrivskyi Lyceum — winners of the second stage of the All-Ukrainian children and youth military-patriotic game “Sokil” (“Dzhura–2026: Halytska Sich”), June 2026. Photo: facebook.com/supperzosh2
Since December 2024, an extensive renovation of the lyceum building has been underway, and since the end of 2025 a new civil protection shelter has been under construction. On 17 June this year Velykooleksandrivskyi Lyceum posted two procurement notices in Prozorro: the first for modernization (major renovation) of the food unit, the second for reconstruction of the workshop building to create a “support kitchen” at the lyceum.
Food unit, support kitchen, or kitchen factory?
First, let’s define the terms. The school food reform, patronized by the president’s wife Olena Zelenska, among other things provides for replacing kitchen equipment in schools and preschools so that children receive nutritious and healthy food. Funds for full kitchen retrofitting and cafeteria repairs are provided to communities from state budget subventions, and those funds flow through the EU Ukraine Facility mechanism. The 2026 budget allocates one billion hryvnias for re-equipping school kitchens.
The reform radically changes approaches to food organization, and to optimize it three innovative technological models were developed:
basic kitchen (food unit): food is prepared directly in schools and kindergartens only for their own students and pupils;
a support kitchen prepares food for its own students/pupils and for other educational institutions in the city or community where it is economically impractical to maintain separate food units. Ready meals are delivered to branch cafeterias in thermal boxes up to 25 km away;
a kitchen factory — where meals are prepared at a separate specialized enterprise outside the school using the Cook&Chill technology (“cook and chill”) and delivered to cafeterias of a large number of educational institutions. In effect, this is large-scale catering, where the number of portions can reach 10 thousand per day.
The Ministry of Education developed the necessary manuals with recommendations for equipping food units and purchasing kitchen equipment, with calculations of what and how much is needed for a given number of children — from combi ovens to cleaning agents — and calculators for the estimates. There are a number of specialized companies that provide procurement, installation and maintenance services for modern equipment; we “borrowed” this infographic from one of their websites.
So which food organization model did Velykooleksandrivskyi Lyceum choose? It appears to be two at once, since on the same day the institution announced procurements both for reconstruction of the existing food unit and for creating a support kitchen in the workshop building. Lyceum director Nataliya Petryk did not give a clear answer to our question about why the lyceum needs essentially two kitchens today. According to her, “the state decided this, we did not make the decision.”
As Nataliya Korniienko, head of the Velykooleksandrivka settlement military administration (SVA), told the CIJ, the support kitchen at the lyceum will allow hot meals to be provided to children from at least two more schools in the community, and possibly neighboring ones.
“This support kitchen will be able to serve not only institutions in our community. It may even supply schools located in a neighboring community. This is more rational and convenient than building a separate food unit in each school. And it is, so to speak, a step toward the future,” says Nataliya Korniienko.
According to Kherson OVA, subventions for repair/re-equipping of food units this year will be received by 10 educational institutions in the region, two of them — schools in Bila Krynytsia and Mala Oleksandrivka. That is, precisely the institutions whose students are planned to be served by the support kitchen of Velykooleksandrivskyi Lyceum! Moreover, Bilokrynytsia Support Gymnasium has already run a tender for reconstruction of the first floor to arrange a basic kitchen food unit for 15 million hryvnias. Agree, such inconsistency looks very strange, so we hope to receive clarifications from Kherson OVA and the Ministry of Education soon. Especially since CIJ is preparing a series of materials on implementation of food unit and kitchen projects funded by the EU Ukraine Facility program.
Nataliya Korniienko, head of Velykooleksandrivka settlement military administration in Kherson region. Photo: Oleh Baturin/CIJ
It is also clear that any kitchen model will be unnecessary in the new school year if there is no offline or at least mixed learning format. In December last year, in an interview with CIJ Nataliya Korniienko expressed hope that already in 2026 at least three schools would switch to in-person learning: “We expect that next year 1200 of our children will return to offline schooling in up to three schools — in Bila Krynytsia, Mala and Velyka Oleksandrivka. These are out of 1500 children who are currently studying with us online. The school in Bila Krynytsia will also be designed for children from Mykhailivka, Novopavlivka, Bilousove and Karyerne.”
In the updated June List of territories where hostilities are taking place (or took place) or are temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation, the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development included all the mentioned localities as territories of possible combat. Therefore, in-person learning there is possible only with a combination of several conditions: the presence of a certified radiation shelter, a decision from the regional military administration and the consent of parents and school leadership, who will weigh primarily the security situation. And it is far from ideal: Berislav district, reachable by enemy artillery from the left bank of the Dnipro, is constantly subjected to rocket and drone strikes. In early August, during a shelling, lyceum student Maksym, aged 8, died along with his father.
Even if a miracle occurred and the front line receded to Perekop, Velykooleksandrivskyi Lyceum is not ready to start the new school year offline — construction of the shelter is not yet complete. The mixed format is also in question; perhaps that is why Kherson OVA has not yet made the corresponding decision.
Nataliya Petryk, director of Velykooleksandrivskyi Lyceum, Kherson region. Photo: Facebook/Nataliya Petryk
According to director Nataliya Petryk, the reconstruction (major renovation) of the lyceum building, which Ukrbud-Project-Reconstruction LLC is to complete by the end of the year, is currently halted due to lack of funds. Moreover, the major renovation as such has not been carried out.
“Builders repaired rooms damaged by Russian shelling: a second-floor classroom, a corridor and a gym that was hit by a tank shell. They also replaced heating systems, water supply, electrical wiring and the fire alarm system. The shelter construction, carried out by the same company, is nearing completion; interior work is finished and landscaping of the site is underway. But I would not want to evaluate these works until they are finally completed and, most importantly, until the facility receives SES certification and is commissioned,” explained Nataliya Petryk.
Even more questions are raised by the virtually non-alternative choice of contractor for the reconstruction of the workshop building to create the support kitchen at the lyceum. In a situation where the market is not flooded with bidders for lucrative contracts with strict rules under the Ukraine Facility program and in a not very safe area, clients have to work with whoever shows up. As the saying goes, when there are no fish, even a crayfish is a fish, but that is usually where the greatest hidden risks lie.
What is known about the general contractor for the support kitchen works?
The procurements were conducted as open tenders with special conditions that allow determining a winner even if only one proposal is submitted. Only one company applied for both tenders — Nikopolska-STK LLC, which this year changed its legal address from Nikopol to Kyiv.
The tender for major renovation of the food unit did not take place — Nikopolska-STK’s proposal was rejected. As stated in the protocol, the tender proposal contained goods and/or material resources not originating from acceptable countries. A repeat procurement a month later also did not take place, so the lyceum posted the procurement notice for the same works a third time and is awaiting proposals until 15 August.
After addressing the comments, Nikopolska-STK did receive the contract to reconstruct the workshop building into a support kitchen, offering a price 2% below the expected amount, thus the procurement cost amounted to 26 883 237,18 UAH. The company signed the contract as general contractor, with the right to engage qualified subcontractors. The reconstruction is to be completed by the end of 2026. According to N. Petryk, dismantling work is currently underway at the site.
Nikopolska-STK LLC and several related companies are the family business of the Pohan family from Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region. The company’s beneficiaries are Stanislav Vasylovych Pohan (holding 60%) and his daughter-in-law Iryna Sergiivna Pohan, and the head is Alla Stanislavivna Borenko (likely his daughter). Stanislav Pohan’s son, Oleksandr Pohan, was director of Nikopolska-STK LLC from 2016 to 2021 and now works as director of another his father’s company, Nika-Pobutservis.
Previously, the lawyer of Nikopolska-STK, director and co-owner of another family firm — Techno-Service Plus — was Stanislav Pohan, son of Iryna and Oleksandr Pohan. Since 2018 he has three times run for the position of operative officer in the Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson directorates of the National Police of Ukraine, including in the Economic Protection Department. The last attempt was successful: in 2020 he submitted a declaration as an operative officer of the Kyiv Strategic Investigations Department of the Department of Strategic Investigations of the National Police and has since risen to the position of senior operative officer in particularly important cases of the Department of Strategic Investigations of the NPU. His share in Techno-Service Plus was transferred to his mother, the legal address of Nikopolska-STK LLC ultimately also “moved” to Kyiv — and that was not accidental.
According to YouControl analytics, Nikopolska-STK has received contracts totaling 938 million hryvnias since 2016. The company’s largest income from public contracts came during the major war period. This month it unexpectedly received a contract whose value is twice the company’s total tender revenue over its 10 years of existence. Nikopolska-STK received from the Department of Regional Development of Kyiv ODA a contract to build a water purification block at the 2 lift station and a potable water reservoir in Fastiv with an estimate of 480 million hryvnias. Moreover, the half-billion procurement was conducted without using the electronic system, i.e., without competition, by concluding a direct contract — with a company of very ambiguous reputation.
YouControl analytics data on Nikopolska-STK LLC’s participation in tenders
Nikopolska-STK has a long trail of criminal proceedings across various regions of the country dating back to its first year of existence. In 2016 the company undertook the reconstruction of the food unit of Holoprystan Central District Hospital in Kherson region (a contract worth 888 thousand UAH) and earned its first criminal case. According to the verdict of the Holoprystan District Court, Nikopolska-STK’s director Oleksandr Stanislavovych Pohan signed acceptance certificates for work that was essentially not performed, in the amount of almost 110 thousand hryvnias. The director was sentenced to two years of restricted freedom. The Cassation Criminal Court in the composition of the Supreme Court on 1 September 2021 upheld the first instance ruling.
In 2018 the police opened a criminal proceeding regarding the reconstruction of Korovynska School in Sumy region. The investigation found that the works performed by Nikopolska-STK did not correspond to the certificates of completed construction works, and part of the works remained unfinished. 2021: The State Audit Service, during an audit of the Capital Construction Department of Kherson City Council, found an overstatement of work costs by 1,75 million in the reconstruction of School No.26 in Komyshany. Thus Nikopolska-STK got another case, during the investigation of which law enforcement found signs of falsifying data in acceptance certificates and collusion between the contractor’s representatives and city council officials. Investigators also noted the company’s lack of qualified personnel and equipment.
Then came the war and the occupation of Kherson region, which resulted in prosecutors losing some criminal case files belonging to Nikopolska-STK — their materials were lost, and after liberation of Kherson’s right bank some of them were reinstated by prosecutors through the courts. This includes the reconstruction of the Komyshany school.
A recent criminal proceeding — from 4 June 2026. Investigators of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Mykolaiv region are probing a possible collusion between community officials and the contractor and embezzlement of budget funds during construction of a radiation shelter at Mykhailivskyi Lyceum of Stepivska village council; the contract with Nikopolska-STK totaled 46,6 million hryvnias. (By the way, Nashi Hroshi already in August 2025, literally a week after signing the contract, found a probable overpricing in the estimate of this shelter of almost two million hryvnias.)
Three days before the opening of the proceeding, Stepivska village council unilaterally terminated the contract with Nikopolska-STK. The protocol entered into the Prozorro system notes that the general contractor was to complete the construction by 31 May 2026, but the actual level of completion of construction works was 17,66% of the total volume specified in the project-estimate documentation, and in terms of the cost volumes of the works this represented 23,09% readiness of the facility.
Alla Borenko, director of Nikopolska-STK LLC. Photo: facebook.com/alla.borenko.2025
Interestingly, the current director of Nikopolska-STK LLC, Alla Borenko, told CIJ in a phone conversation that she was unaware of the criminal proceedings involving the company. She said she had not even heard of Oleksandr Pohan’s guilty verdict.
Lyceum director Nataliya Petryk, however, says that before signing the contract she read publications about this company. Nevertheless, based on the submitted documents, the lyceum had no grounds to reject the proposal. We respectfully disagree with Ms. Nataliya. And this is not even about reputation and the number of criminal proceedings. Procurements using EU Ukraine Facility funds have a list of special requirements, including documentary proof of successfully completed similar projects in the last three years.
For the tender worth 27 million hryvnias, Nikopolska-STK submitted as documentary proof of a similar project a certificate for major renovation of a basement
room (arrangement of the simplest shelter) at the Iskorka kindergarten in Boyarka, Kyiv region, with a contract amount of 1,88 million hryvnias and an actual performance amount of 1,4 million. True, how fully analogous is this in terms of contract sums and project complexity?
Moreover, the certificate was issued not by the Capital Construction Department of Boyarka City Council, which was the contracting party, but by the director of the executing LLC, Alla Borenko. In addition, as the client found out, three acceptance certificates were undated, and their combined amount turned out to be 5 576 UAH less than the total amount of the works in the procurement. After corrections by Nikopolska-STK, the lyceum signed the contract with it for reconstruction of the workshop building to create a support kitchen.
To be continued — we will continue to monitor this and other high-cost projects. If you know of facts of misuse of budget funds, abuses during reconstruction in liberated territories, illegal appropriation of community property and public funds — write to the editorial mail of the Center for Investigative Journalism at [email protected]
This publication was created within the project of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) “Strengthening Public Oversight” with financial support from Norway.
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