Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
A public dispute has erupted between the Avtostrada corporate group (founded by Maksym Shkil) and the new leadership of the State Agency for Reconstruction and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine headed by Ivan Fedorov.
At the center of the conflict is the technical protection of Kyivvodokanal’s critical infrastructure facilities. The background is interruptions to the capital’s water supply resulting from Russian attacks on the energy sector. According to Shkil, the agency head Fedorov gave the company an urgent order in October to begin protecting Kyivvodokanal’s facilities.
Avtostrada assumed the legal risks and immediately began the work—without contracts and without confirmed financing. A planning institute was engaged, geological and geodetic surveys were carried out, and production teams were mobilized.
On 4. November the client issued an oral instruction from Inna Vnukova, the agency’s first deputy head, to stop work on the projects. On 5. November Avtostrada’s management sought clarification in a personal meeting with Ivan Fedorov about whether the work should continue.
According to Shkil, the answer was “no” — because of the “strained relationship with the company.” By the end of 5. November Avtostrada had stopped the work, withdrawn its employees from the sites, and shifted its resources to other projects.
Shkil called Fedorov’s claim that Avtostrada had refused to participate a lie. He said the company had already confirmed in writing to the client on 23. October its readiness to implement the project. On 7. November Ivan Fedorov announced that the agency was organizing the technical protection of nine Kyivvodokanal facilities.
Work has already begun at seven of those facilities, and is to start soon at the remaining two. To ensure the required pace, quality, and competitiveness, at least seven experienced contractors are to be involved. According to Fedorov, the agency had asked contractors two months earlier whether they were ready to begin the work.
At that time Avtostrada declined. Fedorov also pointed to the company’s problems preparing for winter road maintenance and emphasized that the same requirements apply to all contractors. Avtostrada is the only company publicly complaining about the allocation of the contracts.
There is no separate public tender on Prozorro specifically for protecting these nine Kyivvodokanal facilities. One was not planned either. This is common practice for the technical safeguarding of critical infrastructure. The State Reconstruction Agency concludes direct contracts with contractors through its regional services, thereby bypassing open tenders.
This is expressly provided for by:
The agency’s central procurement organization works exclusively through open tenders and is not involved in these “emergency projects” to protect critical infrastructure. The aim is to save time, since the regular procedure takes at least 30 days.
That explains why Shkil refers in his post to work “without contracts and without confirmed financing,” while Fedorov mentions the involvement of contractors without referring to a specific tender. Contracts already signed can later appear on Prozorro — only in the form of reports on directly awarded contracts.
The dispute flared against the backdrop of problems with Kyiv’s water supply. On 3. and 4. November 2026 there were complete or partial interruptions of supply after facilities lost their power. The State Reconstruction Agency is responsible for the technical protection of critical infrastructure.
The public statements of the two sides directly contradict each other on who ordered the cessation of the work and whether Avtostrada was actually willing to participate in the project.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Konflikt um Hunderte Millionen: Wie Shkil und Fedorov wegen Direktaufträgen zum Schutz des Kyivvodokanal aneinandergerieten". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Rozsliduvach.