Employees at «Zoria» in Mykolaiv have not been paid their wages for almost two months

Zoria–Mashproekt. Photo: NikVesti

Employees at the state-owned strategic defence enterprise «Zoria»-«Mashproekt» in Mykolaiv, which is part of the ‘Ukroboronprom’ group, are once again reporting delays in the payment of wages.

One of the company’s employees told NikVesti about this on condition of anonymity.

According to him, the employees last received their wages at the end of May — when they were paid the outstanding amount for April. No wages have been paid since then.

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«Salaries are constantly being delayed: they are either paid in instalments or not paid at all. The last payment was at the end of May — that was the balance for April. So now the arrears already amount to two months’ pay — for May and June. We’ve had several meetings with the acting managing director. He promised to settle the full amount by 22 June. Then they said by 3 July, but even then nothing was paid. Now they’re saying that perhaps by the end of the month they’ll pay at least for May. The management keeps coming up with new excuses. But why should we care? We’re not the owners of the company; we’re employees. We’re supposed to be paid an advance and our wages twice a month,» says a factory worker.

According to him, due to the prolonged delay in payments, people are forced to borrow money even for travel to work and basic necessities.

«There are workers who live in the suburbs. For example, travelling from Voskresensk to the factory and back costs around 120 hryvnias. Some couples both work at the factory and have children, but they can’t afford to buy food. A friend of mine says he borrows 120 hryvnias from his retired mum just to get from Voskresensk to work. Everyone is already up to their ears in debt. My credit card is already empty; I’ve got loads of debt. People can’t pay their utility bills; everything’s being put on hold,» says the worker.

He adds that due to delayed wages, the company continues to lose staff.

«How can you survive two months without a salary if that’s your only source of income? It’s a bit easier for pensioners because they have their pension. But what about everyone else? At the moment, around 30–40 people are leaving every month. Mostly pensioners, people with disabilities or those nearing retirement age are left. The workshops are almost empty, and people keep leaving. According to the staffing plan, there should be 28 people working in my section, but now there are only six left. And this is the situation in almost every section,» says a factory worker.

According to him, the workers have repeatedly tried to draw attention to the situation. In particular, they have appealed to «Ukroboronprom». Following these complaints, the workers were paid around 10,000 hryvnias, effectively clearing the arrears for April.

«People are now planning to appeal to the State Labour Service of Ukraine, the public prosecutor’s office and other authorities, as the wage arrears now exceed one month,» he says.

The employee notes that in nearly 30 years of working at the company, there has never been a situation like this before.

«I’ve been working at this company for about 30 years now. There have been delays of a day or two, three at most. But nothing like this has ever happened before. Even in the nineties, when I came back from the army, they still paid our wages. But now — it’s just a nightmare,» says the factory worker.

As reported by NikVesti, delays in paying wages at the factory have been going on for over half a year. In particular, employees reported wage arrears on 10 and 18 March, and subsequently on 7 May. According to one of the interviewees, in March the workers were paid only a 50 per cent advance, and they never received their full monthly wages.

Following the publication of the article, employees were paid their February wages, more than a month late.

It should be recalled that on 16 December 2025, NikVesti reported that employees of the state-owned strategic defence enterprise «Zoria»-«Mashproekt» in Mykolaiv had not received their wages for two months. At the time, an employee of the enterprise told us that in November, staff had been paid only 25 per cent of their advance, and they had still not received their monthly wages.

Subsequently, the November wages were paid in two instalments: the first on 18 December – two days after our publication – and the second on 25 December.

Embezzlement at «Zoria»

«Zoria»-«Mashproekt», archive photo: NikVesti

As a reminder, in September 2023, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) announced that four former managing directors of the «Zoria»-«Mashproekt» plant and one businessman were suspected of embezzling 1.32 billion hryvnias. The investigation established that the management of the «Zoria»-«Mashproekt» plant, which exported its own products abroad, had organised a scheme to misappropriate the state-owned enterprise’s funds. To this end, a series of agency agreements were concluded with a non-resident company, under which it was allegedly to provide services to identify and negotiate with potential buyers of the state-owned enterprise’s products with a view to concluding relevant foreign trade contracts with them.

In January 2024, the bail amount for Konstantyn Kartoshkin, the former director-general of the state-owned enterprise «Zoria-Mashproekt Gas Turbine Research and Production Complex», was reduced by 1 million hryvnias.

In May 2024, the Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court dismissed for a second time an appeal against the notice of suspicion served on Andrii Khomenko, the former Director General of the state-owned enterprise «Zoria-Mashproekt Gas Turbine Construction Research and Production Complex».

A man from Mykolaiv won a ₴1 million judgment against «Zoria» following his dismissal

It should be noted that the employee had worked at the enterprise since 2010 and had held the position of workshop manager since 2018. From June 2022, he had not received his salary and was barred from entering his workplace without any explanation. He learnt that, by an order dated 20 May 2022, the company had suspended his employment contract on the basis of Article 13 of the Law of Ukraine «On the Organisation of Labour Relations under Martial Law».

In court, the claimant argued that he had not received any notification of the suspension of his employment contract, as the company had continued to operate and his post had not been made redundant. Consequently, he considered the suspension of his employment contract to be unlawful and demanded that it be revoked, as well as payment of wages for the period from June 2022.

As a result, the company «Zoria»-«Mashproekt» will be ordered to pay the claimant his average earnings for the period of forced absence from work, amounting to 1.2 million hryvnias.