Petro Kobernyk

After Russian occupation of Kherson oblast in 2022, the President of Ukraine set up military administrations in free as well as occupied communities of the region. Administrations of occupied communities have kept performing their functions distantly. In 2025, Ukraine allocated almost 100 million UAH for the work of 32 military administrations. We analyzed procurement and other budgetary spending of military administrations of occupied communities of Kherson oblast and identified key problems as well as unique cases of public spending.

For the third year, Kherson residents have lived in the active combat zone. They moved their living underground. They spend significant part of their life underground. Kherson residents give birth to their children there. Hospitals and humanitarian centers are located there. Concerts and performances of local theatre, sports competitions, academic lectures and seminars are held underground.

Recently large public scandal surrounded multi-million building of so-called «underground schools». Does the city need them? Who and how misappropriated budgetary funds – our investigation will answer these questions.

Roman Mrochko, the Head of Kherson City Military Administration, regularly posts photos of repaired shelters and thanks of residents in his Telegram channel. Word “shelter” has been mentioned 73 times in Mrochko’s channel. Almost all posts about shelters indicate precise addresses. 

Addresses of all shelters of Kherson have been made public on special online map, developed by Kherson City Military Administration after public information request of the Center of Journalistic Investigations. However, city administration does not provide free access to the information on public money spent for constructing or repairing shelters. 

Residents of Kherson have lived under daily Russian shelling for almost one year. Bomb shelters and simple hiding places should have protected residents from Russian missiles and shells but there are a few of them in the city. Protective cement modules at stops of public transport have been constructed in liberated Kherson during winter 2023. Repairing works have been launched in hideout places in basements of multi-floor buildings during the summer 2023. 

Waves of contracts on repairing works can be monitored at Ukrainian public procurement system Prozorro. The procuring entity is the department of civil protection of population of the Kherson City Military Administration. The last wave of contracts has been concluded at the end of August 2023. The department signed 19 contracts with eight legal entities and physical persons-entrepreneurs for around 30 million UAH. All contracts have been concluded without open competitive bidding. The order of the Cabinet of Ministries of Ukraine allows non-competitive bidding for the procurement of shelters. It means that procurement entities may sign the contract with anybody, even without previous experience of construction works. The risk is high that public bodies will misuse this opportunity and conclude contracts for personal enrichment or with entities without necessary experience and resources.

Kherson has been under daily Russian shelling since its liberation on November 11, 2022. Approximately 200 inhabitants have been killed by Russian artillery during half a year. The death toll grows each week. However, the construction of shelters has started only recently.

How much does the safety of Kherson residents cost? And how are Kherson city authorities going to protect them from the Russian shelling?