1,3 billion for chainsaws and the “walking technique”: how Kyivteploenergo handed a billion-hryvnia contract to a PE teacher with an expeditor’s résumé

For Kyiv’s municipal workers there’s a much more effective lifehack for those who still spend years getting specialized education and building a construction business. It’s enough to record a video on social media about the magical “walking technique,” wish the needed sum into the universe, and give the right people a ride at the right time.

Recently, outraged residents of Kyiv’s Teremky tried to defend the local park against chainsaws in clashes with the Municipal Guard, while the municipal enterprise Kyivteploenergo, without much scrutiny or bidding, allocated 1,3 billion hryvnias to a company that the day before had been re-registered to a PE teacher whose résumé listed experience as an expeditor. Martial law securely classified the estimates, and the old equipment from well-known city developers at the site proved: the universe always answers a sincere request, especially when it’s backed by established backroom connections to the city hall. Hromadske journalists dissected the now-familiar scheme of Kyiv’s municipal mafia.

In Kyiv’s Teremky they started preparing for winter as early as summer. Since then the local green area looked more like a restricted site. They began cutting down the green zone to build a backup heat pipeline. Local residents protested, claiming the work proceeded without proper permits and that the pipeline could have been routed around the park. Then police and the Municipal Guard arrived and clashes began.

While the protests continued, the construction cost estimate rose in parallel. From July to September the client for the Teremky works — the municipal enterprise Kyivteploenergo — conducted four procurements worth more than a billion hryvnias. Hromadske found out who received those funds.

As part of the city’s energy resilience plan, Kyiv is building a backup heat pipeline for Teremky. If CHP-5 stops, this pipeline is supposed to secure heating for more than 280 buildings so they won’t be left without heat.

The backup pipeline project was split into separate launch complexes, and from July to September Kyivteploenergo signed four contracts for their construction. The total cost of these procurements exceeded 1,3 billion hryvnias. The contracts were signed precisely while protests were happening in Teremky.

The total cost of building the backup heat pipeline exceeded / hromadske

The first contract appeared on 20 July — for more than 530 million hryvnias. Then, on 12 August, another — for almost 170 million. On 27 August — another over 230 million. And the last contract, for almost 390 million hryvnias, was signed on 25 September — just a few weeks ago. The works under them are to be completed by 31 December 2026.

All four tenders were awarded without competition by Kyivteploenergo to Atmosfera Management LLC. Why without bidding? The justification is as straightforward as possible — martial law. For the same reason the procurement names and signed contracts were classified. So what exactly makes up the total amount is not specified in the open data.

Four tenders Kyivteploenergo awarded without competition to Atmosfera Management LLC / hromadske

New owners on the eve of a billion-hryvnia contract

At first glance, Atmosfera Management appears to be a company with history. It was created almost 11 years ago. It specializes in the installation of water supply networks, heating systems, and air conditioning. But it’s not that simple.

Let’s start with changes in the registration data. In June this year, exactly one month before Kyivteploenergo’s first procurement of over 500 million, everything literally changed. Previously the company had six NACE codes, mostly related to installation of engineering networks. In June the firm expanded its profile. Now it includes: pipeline, road, and building construction, production of metal structures, trade, equipment rental, and more.

Data from the YouControl analytics system / hromadske

At that time the LLC also changed its email and phone number.

The company also moved. First, in June, from the capital’s Druzhby Narodiv Boulevard to Sofiivska Street, and then in July to Kharkiv, to an office where 28 other companies are registered.

Atmosfera Management changed its email and phone number / hromadske

At the same time the firm got a new director — Oleksandr Vitovsky. He is 40 years old, born in Kyiv. According to registry data, the man never had a sole proprietor registration nor his own business. There are also no records that he was ever a director of any company. The only thing known is that Oleksandr Vitovsky had a case regarding the recovery of alimony.

Oleksandr Vitovsky — the new director of Atmosfera Management / hromadske

From driver to construction in Teremky

Far more interesting proved to be the new beneficiary of Atmosfera Management, which received the funds to build in Teremky — Oleksandr Chykal. He is a 39-year-old entrepreneur from Mykolaiv. Since June 2026 the company has been fully owned by him.

“I decided to try the walking technique. Before I started walking, let’s say, I wished for the sum I needed. And now let’s see — does it work or not,” Chykal said in a video on his social media page just a year ago, sharing his experience.

A few years ago Oleksandr Chykal could not have been called a successful entrepreneur. In 2012 he was studying to be a PE teacher, as his résumé on a job site shows. From 2015 to 2020 he worked as a driver. He was seeking vacancies for driver, courier, or expeditor on that same site.

Resume of Oleksandr Chykal / hromadske

At the same time Chykal volunteered as an assistant to former People’s Deputy of Ukraine from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc — Serhii Khlan. And the way Chykal’s name appears in other users’ phonebooks indicates he was the deputy’s driver.

Then came a sharp career turn into construction. And people and companies that had long worked with Kyivteploenergo began to appear alongside him. We’re talking about brothers Volodymyr and Viktor Besaha and structures under the Servit brand.

That trademark belongs to both brothers, and on its website Servit calls itself a group of companies in design and construction. But what does our former driver Oleksandr Chykal have to do with that?

In May 2025 Chykal became the founder and head of the Sikurs charitable foundation. Previously businessman Volodymyr Besaha held a share in that foundation.

In May 2025 Oleksandr Chykal became the founder and head of the Sikurs charitable foundation / hromadske

A year later Chykal appears in another company. In May 2026 he became the founder and beneficiary of Teplopraymbud LLC. Previously the company belonged to Oleh Yelfimov, who earlier managed Servit Production and Commercial Center LLC. That LLC was founded many years ago by the Besaha brothers.

In May 2026 Oleksandr Chykal became the founder and beneficiary of Teplopraymbud LLC / hromadske

Until 2026 the company Teplopraymbud had another name and received multimillion contracts from Kyivteploenergo.

So even before the Teremky contracts, Chykal already appears in structures that lead to the Besaha brothers and have a long history of working with Kyivteploenergo.

We decided to ask Oleksandr Chykal, who according to hromadske had recently been seeking work as a driver for 23 000 hryvnias per month, how he became the owner of the company that received more than 1,3 billion hryvnias for construction in Teremky.

He replied that he bought Atmosfera Management from its previous owners, but refused to comment on what funds he used to do so.

We found another, non-business connection. Entrepreneur Volodymyr Besaha is currently married to Olena Besaha. Last year she filed a lawsuit against the aforementioned People’s Deputy of the VIII convocation Serhii Khlan seeking to terminate his parental rights regarding their mutual son.

So the current wife of businessman Volodymyr Besaha has a child with former People’s Deputy Serhii Khlan. The same Khlan for whom Oleksandr Chykal previously worked as an assistant and, according to phone databases, as a driver. Thus Chykal and Besaha intersect not only through companies; they are also connected by Serhii Khlan.

By the way, Servit-branded equipment was already working in Teremky in the summer and autumn. Formally Chykal’s Atmosfera Management and the Besahas’ structures are separate. In practice their traces met again at the same construction site.

We wanted to know whether the Besaha brothers or their structures are the actual developers in Teremky, and if not, what Servit-marked equipment was doing at the pipeline construction site. But Volodymyr Besaha did not answer our calls.

Not the first high-profile Servit story

Teremky is not the first high-profile construction story involving Servit. In 2017 a residential complex Turgenev was erected near the historical Zelensky estate in Kyiv, which Servit still lists among its completed projects.

After the first phase of Turgenev, developers began moving toward the plot with the estate. In 2020 Volodymyr Besaha obtained urban planning conditions for design nearby, and in 2024 the Kyiv City State Administration issued urban planning conditions for reconstruction of the estate itself.

Work around it had started before, but after public outcry it was possible to stop it. And on 19 July 2024 the estate was nevertheless demolished. Only after that did the mayor of Kyiv call the demolition “a cynical provocation,” promise to sue the developer and demand restoration of the estate.

Earlier, in 2018, deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration Vyacheslav Nepop tagged both Besaha brothers on his Facebook page.

In 2018 deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration Vyacheslav Nepop tagged both Besaha brothers on his Facebook page / hromadske

We also found a photo showing Viktor Besaha alongside the city’s chief architect Oleksandr Svystunov, the former deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration who oversaw land issues, urban planning and architecture Oleksandr Spasybko, and Vitali Klitschko.

Oleksandr Svystunov, Oleksandr Spasybko, Viktor Besaha, Vitali Klitschko / hromadske

Thus more than a billion hryvnias were awarded without competition to a company that was completely reassembled just before the contracts: a new owner, director, address, and line of business. The new director Oleksandr Vitovsky had never before been a director or been involved in business. The new beneficiary Oleksandr Chykal until recently worked as a driver. And his connections lead to the Besaha brothers and the Servit structures known for developments in central Kyiv.

All this happened against the backdrop of protests, where people in Teremky tried to stop tree cutting and demanded that the city explain the grounds for the work and why an alternative route wasn’t chosen.

Author: Inna Popovych, investigative journalist

Source: / hromadske