Contractors affiliated with authorities build underground schools in Kherson despite local protests - media
Despite protests from local residents, Russian shelling, and several years of online learning, two underground schools continue to be built in Kherson. The contractors who carry out these construction projects have connections with government officials.
This was reported by Censor.NET, citing an investigation by Bihus.Info journalists.
The article says that in early October, at the stage of digging a pit for one of the future schools, a Russian GAB flew in nearby. The air strike destroyed a school near the future underground shelter. Due to the threat of repeated shelling, locals opposed these projects and began to protest.
However, the Kherson City Military Administration is convinced that the shelling is not related to construction, so they do not plan to stop the implementation of the projects and defend it in every way possible. Bihus.Info journalists analyzed the information about the contractors with whom they had signed contracts and found that they were probably connected to local officials.
The tender for UAH 95 million was awarded to Alsvit Plus. In 2022, it was re-registered to Oleksandr Solovian. And despite its Kyiv residence, the company immediately began to receive significant government orders in Poltava.
In the spring of 2024, before the company began receiving orders in Kherson, the company changed its director to Oleksandr Potelezhko from Kharkiv. The court registry contained a ruling from 2016, which states that at that time, soldier Potelezhko was drunk while on duty. Judging by the ruling, the materials on him were sent to the court by the military prosecutor of the Luhansk garrison. It is interesting that the military prosecutor of this garrison at the same time was Roman Mrochko, the current head of the Kherson City Military Administration.
Another company, Budpostach STSV, received an order for an underground school for UAH 90 million. In addition, the company repairs many of the simplest shelters in Kherson. Bihus.Info journalists tried to talk to the contractors at their registered office in Kherson. But the office was closed, and a neighbor said that half an hour before we arrived, the builders had removed the sign from the door and fled the premises.
Budpostach STSV is owned by several people, including Oleksandr Novokhatskyi and Oleksandr Zahoskin. They studied together at the Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas. Oleksandr Susak, a scientist and energy expert, also worked there, and now, as an individual entrepreneur, he also receives contracts for shelter repairs in Kherson and is Zahoskin's partner in another company. By a strange coincidence, the current deputy head of the city's military administration, Serhii Orekhov, also studied at the same university at the same time Susak was actively engaged in research. Their specializations are also similar - Oriekhov studied "Gas and Oil Pipelines and Gas and Oil Storage Facilities," while Susak was completing his laboratory workshop "Pipeline Gas Transportation."
Oleksandr Susak refused to answer journalists' questions, and Serhii Oriekhov allegedly could not remember such a person at all.
Earlier, Bihus.Info journalists have already investigated the reconstruction process in Kherson region. Back then, they found out that millions of hryvnias were given to a company associated with the deputy head of the Kherson RMA Anton Samoilenko to restore one of the educational institutions here.
