In 2023, Kherson authorities spent over half a billion UAH for repairing and constructing simple shelters. However, some of them are closed or unfit for use. Besides that, city authorities signed dozens of contracts with physical persons-entrepreneurs who do not have experience in construction or necessary equipment. New investigation of CJI demonstrates how the system of misappropriation of budgetary resources was launched and who performs multi-million repair works in shelters, ignored by the majority of Kherson residents.
Let’s start with some background information. In January 2024, an investigator from the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Kherson region applied to the court for permission to access and seize the original tender contracts of the company involved in our investigation into «underground schools» – Budpostach-STSV. This favorite of the Department on Civil Protection of the Kherson City Council won tenders worth 140 million UAH for the repair of the simplest shelters. The court ruling revealed that the embezzlement and misappropriation of budget funds by officials of the Department have been investigated. The Department was then headed by Oleksandr Gorin, who signed contracts for the repairs of the shelters. The investigator wanted to gain access to the documents of other favorite contractors of this customer, but the judge refused.
The list in the court ruling includes contractors well known to our readers for their work on repairs of shelters in Kherson: figures from investigations and publications by the CJI two years ago. We reported clear violations and corruption risks during these tenders and exposed a whole scheme of embezzlement by physical persons-entrepreneurs. We were glad to see them among the figures in the criminal proceedings, and we hope to see them in the court soon
Oleksandr Gorin, former Head of the Department on Civil Protection of Kherson City Military Administration. Photo: open sources
For example, Natalia Pavlovna Yurchenko registered as an individual entrepreneur in Brovary in July 2023. In August, she received three contracts from the Kherson Department on Civil Protection for repairs of shelters worth 5.75 million UAH, without any experience in construction or business. In phone conversation, Ms. Yurchenko assured us that her sister Anastasia (Galitska) was actually doing the repairs. In her turn, Anastasia quite emotionally denied this lie in a phone conversation with CJI correspondent: “Wait, that can’t be! I have a completely different profession and I don’t do this… Listen, this is amazing. I do have a sister like that, but I don’t live in Kharkiv and I don’t do this kind of thing at all.” Who was actually involved in the repairs of these shelters remains unknown.
Ukrainian law enforcement bodies also took an interest in the activity of Vasyl Mykolayovych Rzhevsky, who registered as a physical person-entrepreneur in Kyiv in the spring of 2023. He had never been involved in construction, but he began to receive regularly contracts in Kherson from Gorin’s department within a few months. By April 2025, entrepreneur Rzhevsky earned over 20 million UAHs from the repair of the simplest shelters. According to the investigation, Rzhevsky conspired with officials of the Kherson City Military Administration and helped them embezzle money from the repair of shelters.
Works at objects of Vasyl Rzhevsky, summer 2023. Photo: CJI
What connects these and other favored contractors of the Kherson Department on Civil Protection with former city leaders, and why do we call them – «fellow countrymen scheme»? As our investigation revealed, many of them are connected to the Luhansk region, specifically to Sievierodonetsk. Key figures in the team of Roman Mrochko, former Head of Kherson City Military Administration, are also connected to this city. From 2015 to 2017, he has been the military prosecutor of the Luhansk garrison of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The administrative center of the free part of the region was the city of Sievierodonetsk. Colonel Oleg Chekhuta has been its military commissar. His wife, Natalia Chekhuta, has been the Head of the Kreminna Raion State Administration. Oleksandr Gorin has been her predecessor. When Roman Mrochko was appointed as the Head of the Kherson City Military Administration, Natalia Chekhuta became his First Deputy whereas Oleksandr Gorin headed the Department on Civil Protection. Then, these fellow countrymen involved other fellow countrymen, newly registered entrepreneurs, to win multi-million tenders. Public officials vehemently denied that they knew these winners.
As of today, one criminal investigation of misappropriation of funds for the repair of Kherson shelters covers 14 physical persons-entrepreneurs and companies. Some of them have received multi-million contracts from Gorin’s Department until April 2025. Then, Roman Mrochko was dismissed, and his team left Kherson.
Oleksandr Gorin tried to hold his position. He appeared with his new head of city administration Yaroslav Shanko. But these moves did not help him. He had to leave.
Oleksandr Gorin and Yaroslav Shanko. Summer 2023. Photo: Kherson City Military Administration.
However, Mr. Gorin was unable to simply pack his bags and leave the city following his patrons. As it turned out, law enforcement bodies suspect him of conspiring with representatives of contractors to embezzle budget funds. The investigation has been ongoing since 2023, but law enforcement bodies «exposed» Gorin only in August 2025 when they reported him suspicion of official negligence. In other words, an official who may be involved in cover-up schemes continued to work quietly for two years and awarded multi-million contracts to dubious contractors.
The most paradoxical about the story is that, according to estimates of local authorities, only 2% of Kherson residents use shelters of various types during air raid alerts. This was reported in September this year on «We Are Ukraine» channel by Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, Deputy Head of the Kherson Oblast State Administration. Although the video has since been removed from the channel’s website, its text version is still accessible.
Thus, public officials might have stolen hundreds of millions at the construction of shelters, and results of construction efforts became almost useless.
Why there is such a low demand for these shelters in Kherson, and why do city residents ignore them? The fact is that Russian positions are located just across the Dnipro River, only a few kilometers from the residential areas of the regional center. A mortar shell can reach here in a matter of seconds. A tank shell can hit here almost instantly. It is clear that the occupants do not announce their shelling in advance. It means that the residents of Kherson have a choice: either live in shelters or ignore them, disregarding their own safety. As we can see, 98% of the city’s residents choose the latter option.
The desire to wait out the shelling in a safe place does not guarantee that you will be able to get there, because some of the shelters in Kherson, which have already been repaired at a cost of millions, are sometimes inaccessible for various reasons. For example, last spring, the Russians dropped bombs near the building where above mentioned Natalia Yurchenko renovated the basement. Some residents were unable to enter the shelter… because they simply did not have the keys to the neighboring entrance.
In other words, previous Kherson authorities spent hundreds of millions of UAHs on repairing shelters, but could not find tens of thousands to make duplicate keys for the entrances to the buildings where these shelters are located. Another interesting piece of information from the townspeople: «elite» shelters appeared in the city exclusively for public officials or managers. According to the residents of Kherson, those public officials appropriated the renovated basements of their own or neighboring entrances and go there as if to work in an office.
Mykola Prusov, Head of the Department on Civil Protection of Kherson City Military Administration. Photo: most.ks.ua
We are now watching the start of the next season of the detective series with elements of mysticism, «Millions for Shelter That No One Needs.» Instead of Gorin, in August 2025, Mykola Prusov was appointed as the Head of the Department on Civil Protection of the Kherson City Military Administration. He has been advisor of Shanko for a month, and before that he worked as the Deputy Head of the Kakhovka Raion State Administration and as an investigator for the Pervomaisky Raion Police Department of the Mykolaiv oblast. Considering that the heads of the Kherson regional and city military administrations also served in the police in the past, it can be said that «a police community» is growing within the leadership of the Kherson region.
Mykola Prusov has already signed nine contracts on the repair of shelters, worth over 20 million UAHs.
Contracts were awarded to several various limited liability companies and physical persons-entrepreneurs. Each contract raises questions. Let us take the repair of shelter to be performed by Kherson LLC «Teren». Its founders are Viktor and Svitlana Khodykin. Mykola Khodykin, likely their son, is the director. He is registered as physical person-entrepreneur. He received contracts on development of project documentation for the repair of Kherson shelters. On September 26, 2025, the Department on Civil Protection ordered three projects of shelters and three expert conclusions of them from Khodykin-junior.
On October 10, 2025, this family through LLC «Budivelnyk 21» (Khodykin-senior is its final beneficiary) won contracts on technical supervision of works at three out of six shelters. That is to say, one family performs the whole cycle of works – they develop projects, they implement them, they supervise their implementation and later they will examine results. It is unknown whether the family controls its own work. New leadership of the Department on Civil Protection continues dubious tradition of its predecessors – their hide addresses of shelters, justifying it by security reasons. In practice, they hide contractors who repair concrete shelters. It seems very close to accusations against Mr. Gorin…
Addresses of shelters from contracts on repair of Kherson shelters are hidden by black spots.
Legislative amendments oblige contractors to disclose their detailed budgets. We see too high prices on construction materials in budgets of LLC «Teren».
The company purchases aerated concrete blocks at a price of 4,850 UAH per cubic meter. The annex to the contract does not specify what kind of work they are needed for—internal or external—but in Kherson, the average price per cubic meter of aerated concrete blocks is 3,500 UAH. «Teren» purchases deep penetration primer at 139 UAH per liter. Similar materials from CERESIT are sold in «Epicenter» stores at 50-70 UAH per liter. The market price of a 65-gram tube of UNIPAK sealing paste varies from 45 to 100 UAH, while Teren LLC will purchase it at 183 UAH per tube.
The situation is similar with other contractors who will be working on shelters after Oleksandr Gorin’s dismissal. Almost all of their estimates show signs of overpricing for materials, which is what the city’s former leadership is currently suspected of. Moreover, media «Most» established a connection between Igor Sidko, an individual entrepreneur who received a contract worth 2.4 million UAHs, and Pavlo Kozyrev, the former Head of the Department on Civil Protection of the Kherson Oblast State Administration, who was detained by law enforcement officers in early 2025 on suspicion of receiving a bribe.
Contracts for the repair of the simplest shelters, totaling 6 million 865 thousand UAHs, were awarded to Lubov Viktorivna Maruschak, who registered as an individual entrepreneur just 18 days before signing the contract. We called her and asked how she planned to carry out the contracts without experience or resources. Ms. Maruschak assured us that she had everything she needed—both experience and money for construction materials.
Maruschak also denied any connection with another Kherson contractor involved in shelter repairs, Radyslav Fainstein, who was previously reported by our colleagues at «Most». She says she only learned about him from the publication. «Keep digging,» the contractor advised us.
As advised by Lubov Maruschak, we dug deeper and discovered that she and Radyslav Fainstein are not only business partners but also family. The contractors have a daughter Miriam Fainshtein. Business entities of Miriam and her mother are registered at the same address. However, her father’s entity, which received orders for repairs of shelters in Kherson totaling nearly 13 million hryvnia since 2024, is registered at a different address.
Lubov Maruschak (extreme left) and Radyslav Fainshtein (standing behind her) and their families. Photo: open sources
So, how much has the Kherson authorities spent since 2022 on repairing and equipping the most basic shelters? We calculated that the Department on Civil Protection of the Kherson City Military Administration conducted around 230 purchases totaling more than half a billion UAHs, or 550 million UAHs. That means that, on average, almost 2.4 million UAH was spent on the repair and equipment of a single basement. Is it worth it, considering that, according to the Kherson Oblast Military Administration, only two percent of Kherson residents use them? Perhaps, until the front moves further south on the left bank, it is time to stop this crazy calculator and redirect funds to anti-drone protection for Kherson and its residents?
Another legacy from the previous authorities, which new authorities are happily and thoroughly exploiting in the renovation of shelters, is the complete mismatch between the subject of the purchase and the specified classification code. For example, services are being purchased for the repair of shelters, but the SC (state classifier) is specified as the completion of construction work. In other words, we see contradictory things: services are being purchased, but work is being classified.
A separate painful issue for the frontline city is the lack of reinforced concrete street shelters, which residents of Kherson complain about in the private sector. Contracts for the installation of this type of shelter by the Department have also been subject to criminal proceedings.
In 2023, the management company «BUD CITY» received a contract to install reinforced concrete protective structures in Kherson, and, according to the investigation, it inflated prices and caused losses of 1.3 million UAHs. Considering that the contract was worth over 4 million UAHs, the customer, represented by Oleksandr Gorin, could have «gifted» this company the third of the contract value.
Semi-underground shelter in Kherson. October 2025. Photo: CJI
Final point is about accessibility of shelters. As stated in the Presidential Decree, by July 25, 2023, local authorities were obliged to bring existing shelters into proper condition, ensure round-the-clock and unhindered access to them, and provide the population with online access to information about existing civil protection structures. Following our requests, an online map showing the locations of all shelters and bomb shelters appeared on the Kherson City Council website two years ago. However, it is now unavailable again, and a request for access must be made. Our three attempts to obtain it at different times have been unsuccessful.
So if you ask us whether the new authorities in Kherson are repeating the mistakes of the past, we would say that they are dancing on them.
It should be noted that after the release of the video version of this investigation, Head of the Kherson City Military Administration Yaroslav Shanko announced that the city authorities were checking the accessibility of shelters to ensure that, in case of danger, everyone would be able to get there without hindrance.
According to Shanko, there have been cases when responsible persons locked shelters with their own locks. This is unacceptable. Such actions endanger people’s lives. As of today, padlocks have been removed from three shelters. Five responsible persons have been warned about administrative and criminal liability for preventing people from entering shelters during a threat.
