A person with a prosecutorial past may be involved in organizing the construction of a shelter at School No. 41 in Kherson, where serious violations were discovered.
This was said in an interview with the media “Apostrophe” by the head of the Kherson OVA Oleksandr Prokudin.
According to him, during the inspection of the site significant deviations from the project were found, in particular insufficient foundation thickness and a shortage of reinforcement, which indicates an ignoring of safety standards.
Prokudin also noted that the person who organized the construction previously worked in the prosecutor’s office.
At the same time, the investigation into possible violations has been ongoing for a year, yet the perpetrators have still not been held accountable.
“The investigation has been ongoing for a year, and the relevant authorities still have not been able to punish those responsible. It could have been done in a month,” Prokudin said.
Due to the discovered violations, the construction of the so‑called underground schools in Kherson is currently suspended.
It should be recalled that these are anti-radiation shelters that began to be built in the fall of 2024. In total there were three such facilities. As MOST discovered, one of them started to be erected without the required permits.
The construction caused protests by local residents, who considered it a possible target for Russian shelling.
The construction of the “underground schools” in Kherson was actively championed by the former head of the MVA Roman Mrochko. One of the reasons for his dismissal was precisely this construction scandal.
One of the shelters was to be built by the Kherson LLC “Budpostach-STSV,” whose leadership, according to MOST, was close to Mrochko’s circle.
However, after the arrest of the company’s director Oleksandr Novokhatsky the contract with “Budpostach-STSV” was terminated and “transferred” to another company, which, having not performed any work, received from the budget more than UAH 5.7 million.
At the beginning of this year Novokhatsky was detained. SBU operatives were involved in searching for him because he began to hide. He was charged with embezzlement of budget funds in large amounts during the period of martial law.
Since July last year Kherson police have been conducting an investigation into possible abuses in the construction of all three shelters on school premises.
We have repeatedly linked Oleksandr Novokhatsky with Vadym Hlushko, who in 2023–2024 effectively managed all budgetary processes in Kherson. Hlushko was the “cashier” for the former head of the Kherson MVA Roman Mrochko, who previously served as a military prosecutor.