Construction of a gymnasium shelter in Mykolaiv region has risen in price by ₴87 million due to groundwater

In the village of Bereznehuvate, Bashtanka district, an additional 87.6 million hryvnias will be spent on the construction of a shelter at the local gymnasium №2 due to groundwater. Before that, 59.2 million hryvnias had already been invested in the construction.

This is according to the Prozorro procurement system, according to NikVesti.

The first tender for the construction of a civil defence protective structure (CDS) on the territory of Bereznehuvate Gymnasium №2 of the Bereznehuvate Village Council was held in November 2024. The initial tender price was 62 million 413 thousand hryvnias.

At that time, the tender was won by «Arena Sport 2011», which offered to perform the work for 59 million 292 thousand 351 hryvnias. It should be noted that the price corresponded to the maximum amount specified in the procurement terms. The tender documents provided for additional requirements for bidders who reduced the price by more than 5% of the expected value. In such a case, the company would have to provide confirmation of the availability of all materials provided for in the estimate or a guarantee of their supply, indicating their cost and quality. Since the price offer of «Arena Sport 2011» did not fall below the established threshold, these conditions did not apply to it.

Under the terms of the contract, the contractor had to build a monolithic reinforced concrete shelter with a total area of over 900 square metres, designed to accommodate 239 people, by December 2025. The project included the construction of ten rooms for students, as well as a canteen, bathroom and utility systems, including autonomous power supply, heating and sewage.

It is worth noting that according to YouControl, the founders of this company are LLC «Silent», owned by Oleksandr Stepanov, and Olha Kim. As Nikcenter previously reported, a person with the same full name appeared in the declarations of the head of Mykolaiv Regional State Administration Vitalii Kim as a person who has joint property with the official. In addition, she has several joint business projects with Oleksandr Stepanov.

It was also reported that Oleksandr Stepanov is the owner of the company «South Sea», which owns the entertainment complex «Ushuaia» on the banks of the Southern Bug. Before his political activity, Vitalii Kim worked as the manager of this complex.

A new tender with adjustments for the construction of the Bereznehuvate gymnasium №2 shelter was announced on 27 November 2025. The cost of the work is 87 million 612 thousand 522 hryvnias.

Only one company took part in the bidding: LLC «Construction Company «Basis». Therefore, the auction was not held, and the winner was determined without competition. The contract is now expected to be signed with the winner.

According to YouControl, the contractor was registered in 2005 in Mykolaiv. The owner of the company is Yevhen Dakhov. The company is also affiliated with LLC «Tsentr-RUM», which owns 100% of the shares.

The company has been participating in public procurement since 2017, with a contract value of about 16 million hryvnias. Its customers include the Department of Capital Construction, the Department of Housing and Communal Services and the Regional Service Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Mykolaiv Region.

The company was also involved in criminal proceedings. In 2014, the Central District Court of Mykolaiv opened criminal proceedings under the article on possible misappropriation and embezzlement of property. Investigators were checking whether the company's officials had entered false information in official documents and also applied to the court to gain access to the company's bank accounts.

In addition, according to the service «Opendatabot», the company's owner is a co-founder of seven other companies operating in the fields of construction, real estate rental and agriculture.

In a commentary to NikVesti, the Department of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports of the Bereznehuvata Village Council explained that the project adjustment was due to problems during construction. They noted that groundwater was discovered during the work, so changes were made to the project.

«Yes, this is an adjustment. During the new construction works, unpleasant intensifiers occurred as groundwater leakage. In this regard, changes were made to the project itself and the project was adjusted. These are changes to the design decisions», the education department said.

They also note that the work will begin next year.

It is worth reminding that the construction of the shelter for the Centre for Medical Rehabilitation and Palliative Care for Children in Mykolaiv will not be hampered by groundwater, and the chances of getting funding for the project are high.

The problem with shelters in Mykolaiv

As of the end of 2025, Mykolaiv lacked more than two thousand shelters, and this problem is most noticeable in the Lisky, Namyv and Pivdennyi neighbourhoods.

In July 2025, Roman Vozniak, Head of the Department for Emergency Situations and Civil Protection of the Mykolaiv City Council, also said that Mykolaiv lacks two thousand shelters to protect the entire city's population.

He said this after the situation when Mykolaiv residents were unable to get into departmental shelters after hours during the shelling. The editors of NikVesti were contacted by city residents who were unable to get into the shelter at 173 Tsentralnyi Avenue during the alarm. All other shelters nearby also belong to institutions or enterprises that are on the balance sheet of municipal or private institutions and accept people only during working hours. Mykolaiv City Hall promises to discuss the issue of shelter availability at a meeting of the executive committee.

It should be noted that Mykolaiv region is among the five regions that showed the best performance in 2024 in terms of building and making shelters ready.

Recently, it became known that partner countries announced their new contributions to the construction of shelters in Ukraine in the amount of more than 22 million euros.