The village of Kyselivka in the Chornobaivka community, located roughly 20 kilometers from the front line, was supposed to become an example of the rapid recovery of the Kherson region after de-occupation. Instead, the reconstruction of the local gymnasium, costing more than 100 million hryvnias, has turned into a protracted story with an uncertain ending.
They did what they could to save it
After Kyselivka was liberated in November 2022, the gymnasium was left without windows and doors and with a smashed roof. Teachers and parents patched up the building on their own so that it would stand until a major renovation.
“After the occupation we patched the roof with whatever we could find. Teachers, parents — everyone brought things from home to save at least something,” recalls the gymnasium director Aliona Tatochenko.
Education at the institution was moved to remote format due to the lack of a shelter. Later, the Chornobaivka village council commissioned a design for the full reconstruction of the gymnasium including the construction of a radiation shelter, which was meant to allow children to return to in-person schooling.
Tender on the second attempt and price increase
In April 2025 the Chornobaivka village council announced on Prozorro tender for the reconstruction of the gymnasium. Only one participant took part in the bidding — LLC “Agency Sirius Group” (for simplicity we will further refer to this company as “ASG”, – MOST), which offered to carry out the works for 98.5 million UAH. The proposal was rejected due to the lack of conformity certificates for the equipment and the procurement was cancelled.
The following month the village council announced a repeat tender. The same company was again the only participant, but this time with an offer of 100.38 million UAH. There were again questions about conformity certificates, however the contract was still signed.
According to the contract, the cost of constructing the shelter is 11.1 million UAH, the reconstruction of the gymnasium — 89.1 million UAH.
“The contractor started actively, we were assured that everything would be completed by the end of 2025. And then — three months of work and everything stopped,” says the gymnasium director.
According to her, of the three planned rooms for the shelter only one is ready: there they poured the floor and plastered the walls.
“There is a crew, I see them every day. They go to work in Posad-Pokrovske, but at our school they do nothing,” she says.
A contractor without relevant experience
The biography of “ASG” is quite interesting.
According to the analytical system YouControl, until 2016 the firm was called “Dental Services” and treated teeth. Then it provided tourist services, and it only obtained the construction-related KVED code in February 2024.
Until 2024 the company hardly participated in public procurements. The only completed orders were two relatively small contracts with the National Guard of Ukraine for a total amount of about 3.5 million UAH.
Particular attention is also drawn to the change of the company’s legal address a few months after participating in the tender.
From its establishment in 2011, “ASG” was registered in Kyiv. However, in May 2025 — a few weeks before the repeat tender — the company was re-registered to an address in Kherson, although it was later returned to Kyiv registration.
Such behaviour by the company attracted the attention of the State Audit Service of Ukraine, which began an inspection the day after the contract was signed.
The auditors effectively emphasized that the recent change in the type of activity could create a risk of untimely completion of the works.
State Audit Service monitoring that led to court
Besides the aforementioned factors, auditors were also interested in the equipment; in particular, according to the tender documentation, a Japanese diesel generator Matari MB 25 with a capacity of 25 kW was to be purchased for the shelter. The contractor proposed installing a Ukrainian-made generator with a capacity of 20 kW.
The auditors concluded that the proposed generator has lower power and worse noise characteristics, which violates the principle of equivalence. In response to DASU’s comments, the village council stated that the actual need of the facility is 18.78 kW, and the use of Ukrainian equipment is appropriate given the localization of production.
In view of the identified violations, the State Audit Service ordered the Chornobaivka village council to terminate the contract with the contractor, however, instead of terminating the agreement, the parties chose the path of legal confrontation.
Thus, in July last year the Kyiv District Administrative Court opened proceedings in the case brought by “ASG” against the State Audit Service.
The contractor demands that the auditors’ decision be declared illegal and annulled, and the village council participates in the case as a third party on the company’s side.
Millions in overpayments?
While the state auditors examined the KVEDs, activists from “Public Control” analyzed the estimate and concluded that prices for building materials were significantly inflated.
For example, prices for concrete, rebar and insulation in some places exceeded market indicators in the Kherson region by one and a half to two times.
According to experts’ estimates, on basic materials alone the possible overpayment could have reached 2.4 million hryvnias.
In August last year activists appealed to law enforcement with a demand to open a criminal proceeding under articles that provide liability for preparation for an official crime and embezzlement of budget funds in especially large amounts.
According to court materials, the Kherson police are conducting a pre-trial investigation based on data from the public organization. At the same time, in open registers we did not find information about investigators’ motions to access documents.
It should be noted that the Chornobaivka village council has not yet transferred any funds to the company’s account.
Improvements instead of termination
It should be noted that towards the end of 2025 “ASG” and the Chornobaivka village council, instead of terminating the contract, decided once again to change its terms. The parties signed an additional agreement, in which the main change was… the generator, the technical characteristics of which were the main object of DASU’s criticism.
The contractor proposed a Turkish generator Gucbir GJY33MT L with a capacity of 24 kW with an Italian FPT Iveco engine. Effectively acknowledging the auditors’ remarks.
The latest approved work schedule indicates that the second phase of the gymnasium reconstruction is planned to be completed by the end of 2026, but on condition that construction work was to resume at the beginning of January. And as the director told us, there have been no developments in this regard.
“Unfortunately, the situation has not changed. All the work is at the same stage,” noted Aliona Tatochenko.
The community is losing children
While the fight with the auditors continues and construction is on pause, 167 children continue to live in Kyselivka, and 24 teachers work at the gymnasium. All of them remain in distance learning.
“Parents are taking their children away because they need socialization, not endless online. I am afraid of losing the student body and the village itself,” says the director.
MOST sent an information request to the Chornobaivka village council and tried to obtain a comment from the head of the local administration regarding the reasons for the reconstruction delay. However, at the time of publication the editorial office had not received a response.
We will continue to monitor the situation and inform about further developments.