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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
While Kyiv residents remain without water and heat after the shelling, city officials are postponing the deadlines for construction of protective structures until the end of the year, signing contracts worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias with inflated prices.
Materials from the criminal case indicate: the capital’s main engineering shield was built not from concrete, but from intricately drafted discriminatory conditions in Prozorro.
240 drones, 36 rockets, four dead and damaged critical infrastructure. These are the figures for the massive attack on Kyiv on 9 January 2026, which left some districts without heat and water supply. Six days after this shelling, on 15 January, the Kyiv police opened proceedings on official negligence that caused grave consequences.
During the investigation, the police and the SBU seized documents related to the capital’s preparation to operate under attack conditions, protection of critical infrastructure facilities, and the related procurements. The names of institutions in the court rulings are anonymized, but from the context of the rulings it follows that they refer to the Kyiv City Council and the Kyiv City State Administration and their subordinate enterprises. In particular, the case involves PrJSC “AK ”Kyivvodokanal” and the municipal enterprise “Kyivteploenerho.”
What they are investigating
The case contains conclusions from specialists who analyzed the documents. They found that the city’s development strategy and municipal programs were updated “with significant delay.” Also, despite the availability of funds in the budget, the city did not ensure “proper funding of critical infrastructure operators.” Because of this, the deadlines for completing the works were moved to the end of 2026 year.
The investigation cites power, water and heat outages starting on 09.01.2026 as a consequence. The damage was estimated at 29,15 million hryvnias of unplanned expenses. Of that, 11,48 million hryvnias — assistance to 287 Kyiv residents whose apartments were damaged, 14,02 million hryvnias — expenses of municipal housing managements, 1,51 million hryvnias — the state budget, 2,14 million hryvnias — funds of the joint-stock company.
Regarding municipal enterprises, investigators gained access to primary documents (acts/estimates/commercial proposals) of the municipal enterprise “Kyivteploenerho” concerning construction of engineering protection for the thermal power plant, backup power supply and installation of a cogeneration unit, purchase of power equipment, and so on.
The most detailed descriptions in the rulings concern Kyivvodokanal’s procurements, which could be identified by the ruling. All of them were aimed at providing backup power for water supply and wastewater removal.
Potential collusion and prices
The ruling mentions the purchase of nine diesel generators for 243,41 million hryvnias from 19.12.2025. This was a direct procurement highlighted by “Nashi Groshi.” The investigation believes that the technical specification for them “has certain discriminatory features relative to other manufacturers.”
Also, for operation of these generators the water utility signed three agreements for equipment totaling 58,85 million hryvnias, which according to the investigation were supplied at prices inflated by 20–30%. The company that received these contracts is LLC “Enerzhygrup.” It is also stated that the contractor and the water utility arranged an “unlawful mechanism” aimed at embezzlement of budget funds.
The described scheme looked like this. First, the contractor was awarded 18 direct contracts for 9,46 million for designing backup power, and later it received seven subcontracts for construction totaling 320,69 million hryvnias. The company was the sole participant in those tenders and the investigation believes this “indicates prior collusion” and “artificial creation of anti-competitive actions.” Also, according to the investigation, “Enerzhygrup” plans to supply “Schneider Electric” converters of Chinese manufacture with a price markup of 15–20%.
Profile of the companies
Overall, the Prozorro system currently shows 57 Kyivvodokanal contracts with Enerzhygrup worth 599,64 million hryvnias. Thus, the water utility became the company’s largest customer. The same firm is also a top contractor for several regional power distribution companies and was featured in a piece about market redistribution of transformers.
LLC “Enerzhygrup” was registered at the end of 2015 in Dnipro under the name “Best Production.” In spring 2016 the company changed its name, moved to Kharkiv and passed to the current owner and director, Maksym Desiatkov.
The company’s portfolio includes contracts totaling 3,94 billion hryvnias. Of that amount, 2,13 billion hryvnias belong to eight regional power distribution companies, seven of which are part of the state group JSC “Ukrainian Distribution Networks” (UDN).
Desiatkov also manages and co-owns LLC “Estate Energy” together with Iryna Harmash. Iryna Harmash is the wife of Andrii Harmash (former head of the municipal enterprise “Kharkiv Metro,” who since 2024 has held a leadership position in the Construction Department of the Kharkiv City Council).
Until September of this year, a co-founder of “Estate Energy” was Viktoriia Belotska. She is the wife of Oleksii Belotsky, who in August 2026 was appointed acting CEO of the state UDN.
Previously, Belotsky served as director of the Capital Construction Department of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, was an adviser to the KHODA on infrastructure development, head of the economics and finance direction at JSC “Ukrainian Distribution Networks” and an adviser to the minister. Since November 2023 he held the position of deputy CEO of JSC “Ukrainian Energy Machines.”
Also, “Enerzhygrup” is located in the same building as JSC “Ukrainian Energy Machines,” where from November 2023 to July 2026 Belotsky served as deputy CEO.
In addition to the Kyiv case, Enerzhygrup’s contracts were seized during searches in a criminal proceeding regarding procurement of cogeneration units for the municipal enterprise “Kharkiv Heat Networks.”
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Київводоканал закупив обладнання для захисту від обстрілів із націнкою до 30%". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: HAB Media.
