Kyivvodokanal purchased equipment for protection from shelling with a markup of up to 30%

While Kyiv residents remain without water and heat after the shelling, city officials are postponing the timelines for building protective structures until the end of the year, signing contracts worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias with inflated prices.

Materials from the criminal proceeding indicate: the capital's main engineering shield was built not from concrete but from meticulously written 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 that attack, 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, the protection of critical infrastructure facilities, and related procurements. The institution names in the court orders are anonymized, but the context of the rulings implies they refer to the Kyiv City Council and the Kyiv City State Administration and their subordinate enterprises. Specifically, the case involves PJSC AK “Kyivvodokanal” and the communal enterprise KP “Kyivteploenerho.”

What is being investigated

The case contains conclusions from experts involved in analyzing the documents. They found that the city’s development strategy and municipal programs were updated “with significant delay.” Also, despite funds being available in the budget, the city did not ensure “proper financing of critical infrastructure operators.” As a result, the deadlines for completing the work were moved to the end of 2026.

The investigation cites power, water, and heat outages from 09.01.2026. The damage was estimated at 29,15 million hryvnias of unplanned expenses. Of that, 11,48 million hryvnias — aid to 287 Kyiv residents whose apartments were damaged, 14,02 million hryvnias — expenses of municipal housing management companies, 1,51 million hryvnias — the state budget, 2,14 million hryvnias — funds of the joint-stock company.

Regarding the municipal enterprises, investigators obtained access to primary documents (acts/estimates/commercial proposals) of KP “Kyivteploenerho” concerning the construction of engineering protection for the CHPP, backup power supply and installation of a cogeneration unit, purchase of energy equipment, and so on.

The most detailed descriptions in the rulings concern Kyivvodokanal’s procurements, which could be identified from the order. They are all aimed at ensuring backup power for water supply and wastewater disposal.

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 Hroshi.” The investigators believe the technical specification for them “has certain discriminatory features relative to other manufacturers.”

Also, for operating these generators, the water utility signed three agreements for equipment worth 58,85 million hryvnias, which, according to the investigation, was supplied at prices inflated by 20–30%. The company that won these contracts is LLC “Energigroup.” The ruling also states that the contractor and the water utility arranged an “illegal mechanism” aimed at embezzling budget funds.

The described scheme looked like this. First, the contractor was given 18 direct contracts worth 9,46 million for designing backup power, and later it received seven construction subcontracts 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, “Energigroup” planned to supply “Schneider Electric” converters of Chinese manufacture at a price markup of 15–20%.

Profile of the companies

Overall, there are 57 Kyivvodokanal contracts with Energigroup in the Prozorro system totaling 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 mentioned in a piece about the redistribution of the transformer market.

LLC “Energigroup” 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 Desyatkov.

The company’s portfolio includes contracts totaling 3,94 billion hryvnias. Of that amount, 2,13 billion hryvnias account for eight regional power distribution companies, seven of which belong to the state group PJSC “Ukrainian Distribution Networks” (UDN).

Desyatkov also manages and co-owns LLC “Estate Energy” together with Iryna Harmash. Iryna Harmash is the wife of Andriy Harmash (former head of KP “Kharkiv Metro,” who since 2024 has held a leadership position in the Construction Department of the Kharkiv City Council).

Until September of this year, the 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.

Before that, Belotsky worked as director of the Department of Capital Construction of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, was an advisor to the KHODA on infrastructure development, head of the economics and finance direction of PJSC “Ukrainian Distribution Networks,” and an advisor to the minister. Since November 2023 he has held the position of deputy general director of PJSC “Ukrainian Energy Machines.”

Also, “Energigroup” is located in the same building as PJSC “Ukrainian Energy Machines,” where from November 2023 to July 2026 Belotsky was deputy general director.

Besides the Kyiv case, Energigroup’s contracts were seized during searches in a criminal proceeding concerning the procurement of cogeneration units for KP “Kharkiv Thermal Networks.”