Danylo Sandyriev Clears the Internet of Mentions of “Kalmius” and State Contracts

Danylo Sandyriev, owner and director of the construction company “Kalmius,” according to an investigation, is attempting to scrub the internet of mentions about the company’s rapid rise, which, just months after registration, received state contracts worth nearly 660 million UAH. Publications about Kalmius’s tenders, its lack of a long construction history, and possible ties between Sandyriev and the circle of Member of Parliament Serhii Minko are, the authors claim, disappearing from the web.

Media report that the company in question is LLC “BK Kalmius,” registered on 7 March 2025 in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, Kyiv region, with an authorized capital of only 5 thousand UAH. The sole owner and director is Donetsk native Danylo Sandyriev. By May of the same year the company had received three major contracts from the state enterprise “Local Roads of Zaporizhia Region” totaling 658,82 million UAH. The largest contract, worth 439,51 million UAH, provides for construction of a four-story medical building for the Zaporizhia Regional Children’s Hospital. The project includes 48 beds, 18 departments, an underground operating room, and a radiation-proof shelter for 140 people. Another 111,83 million UAH is allocated for an underground shelter of 1425 sq. m for Gymnasium No. 4, designed for 500 people. The third contract — 107,47 million UAH — concerns a similar facility for Gymnasium No. 76.

The peculiarity of these procurements is that Kalmius effectively started out with multi-million state orders. The company had no long operating history or a large staff. To prove experience it submitted a single subcontract agreement with LLC “Company Positive” for 23,14 million UAH. That contract concerned construction of a shelter for the “Logos” lyceum.

At the time the contract was signed Kalmius had existed for only three days, and its staff consisted of a single employee — director Sandyriev. Four more people were registered on 2 April. Work under the subcontract was completed on 16 April, after which the gained experience was used to participate in large procurements.

According to the investigation, Company Positive initially stated it would perform the work without involving subcontractors. However, in March 2025 it asked the director of the state enterprise “Local Roads of Zaporizhia Region,” Viktoriia Repashevska, to approve engaging Kalmius. Journalists say permission was granted the same day, after which a contract was signed with the newly formed company.

Kalmius did not separately confirm financial capacity. The customer explained this by the provisions of tender documentation for newly established enterprises, according to which they submit financial statements only for the period since registration. All three procurements are currently under monitoring by the State Audit Service.

Questions also arose about the cost of materials. In the estimate for the hospital building, hot-rolled rebar A-III with diameters of 10–32 mm was priced at 39 600 UAH per ton, while in the shelter documentation it was priced at 39 528 UAH. The investigators cite supplier offers that were 13–49% lower. Concrete B30 in the hospital estimate is listed at 5050 UAH per cubic meter, and for the shelters at 4930 UAH.

A separate thread concerns Sandyriev himself and his possible contacts in Zaporizhia region. Before creating Kalmius, the investigation says, he specialized mainly in installing saunas and fireplaces in elite villages of Kyiv region. In 2021 Sandyriev was involved in building a SPA complex at the Pryboy recreation base in Prymorsk, Zaporizhia region.

At that time the mayor of Melitopol was Ivan Fedorov, and one of the influential people in his circle is named as Serhii Minko — a former mayor of the city and a Member of Parliament. Minko was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in 2019 from the district that included Melitopol and Prymorsk. Fedorov became Minko’s successor as Melitopol’s mayor and ran from the “Serhii Minko’s Team” party.

After the occupation of Melitopol in 2022, Minko moved to Kyiv region. According to the investigation, in 2023 he and his family rented an estate in Romankiv near Kozyn of about 1300 sq. m, and in 2024 he acquired a house in Kozyn of 203 sq. m. The article then mentions services provided by Sandyriev related to installation work.

In October 2024 Sandyriev, judging by his Instagram, was in Zaporizhia. A few months later Kalmius was registered and the company began receiving large budget orders. That sequence of events, as well as the link with Company Positive, were the subject of earlier publications, some of which, the investigators claim, are now disappearing from open access.

Company Positive also has its own history of participating in state procurements. According to the investigation, since 2016 it has won contracts totaling about 1,04 billion UAH, mostly from the same customer. In April 2025 the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine banned the company from participating in public procurements for three years after finding coordinated actions with LLC “Esko Zaporizhia.” Each company was fined 68 thousand UAH.

The AMC, the source says, identified shared IP addresses and employees, identical files, and synchronized behavior of bidders. It was Company Positive’s contract that allowed Kalmius to confirm construction experience before obtaining contracts worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias.

Thus, attention to Sandyriev is linked not only to the 658,82 million UAH in budget contracts awarded to Kalmius, but also to attempts, the investigators claim, to remove from the internet information about the origin of that experience, the businessman’s prior activities, and his possible ties to the Zaporizhia political environment. The lawfulness of the three procurements and the winner’s compliance with established requirements should be assessed by the State Audit Service based on the monitoring results.