The court approved an agreement with investigators in the case of corruption in Mykolaiv's lighting system: ₴7.3 million returned to the budget

The Zavodsky District Court of Mykolaiv approved a plea bargain in a case involving the embezzlement of more than 7 million hryvnias in budget funds for the purchase of street lighting.

The case involves entrepreneurs Mykhailo Dobrushkin, Denys Chernyshov, and Ihor Stiobolov, according to NikVesti, citing the text of the verdict dated 23 February.

According to the investigation, the director of the municipal enterprise «GDM» Oleksandr Ursolov created a scheme for embezzling budget funds by artificially inflating prices in tenders for the purchase of LED lamps. The scheme, in which the businessmen's companies participated, was implemented in stages throughout 2023.

The conspirators submitted commercial proposals to the municipal enterprise from affiliated companies with pre-inflated prices — Promenergosnab LLC, Svetolux-Nikolaev PE, and Vatra-Dnipro Trading House LLC. Based on these fictitious proposals, the expected purchase price was set at over 47 million hryvnias. Ursolov subsequently approved it in the anti-corruption department. After the tender was announced on Prozorro, his company was supposed to win. However, Promenergosnab, headed by Chernyshov, which offered 44.7 million hryvnias, did not win.

Over the next five months, the municipal enterprise received the lamps and paid the company.

However, the investigation found that the cost of the equipment, taking into account the highest price offer on the Ukrainian market on the date of the contract, was overstated by 3.8 million hryvnias. This difference served as a «kickback» to the director of the enterprise and profit for the entrepreneurs themselves.

In November 2023, the municipal enterprise purchased 2,990 lighting fixtures, for which a tender was announced in November 2023 with an expected cost of almost 28 million hryvnias.

Bids were received from pre-agreed companies: Tornado-A LLC, Shredder LLC, and Promenergosnab LLC. The latter won the tender with a bid of 26 million. According to the investigation, the amount of losses amounted to 2.4 million hryvnias.

The third episode concerns a tender that took place in March 2024. At that time, the municipal enterprise planned to purchase materials for the repair of power grids worth 1.7 million hryvnias.

The real company, LLC «GK Panorama», won the tender with the lowest price of 1.3 million hryvnias. However, the director of the municipal enterprise «GDM», Oleksandr Ursolov, terminated the contract with the assistance of one of the accomplice companies through a quality check of the goods, receiving a fictitious laboratory conclusion.

In May, the contract was terminated and a new tender procedure was announced. It was won by a company controlled by individual entrepreneur Viktoriia Oleksandrivna Ponomarenko, and the amount of damage to the city amounted to 1 million 88 thousand 136 hryvnias.

The total amount of losses to the community was 7 million 365 thousand 508 hryvnias.

At the end of December 2025, the defendants pleaded guilty and entered into an agreement with the prosecutor's office. They transferred EsoFlow charging stations and five FPV T-One 5 ground control stations to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

In addition, on 7 January, the Mykolaiv Regional Prosecutor's Office reported that 7.3 million hryvnias in damages had been reimbursed to the city budget.

The court found them guilty and sentenced them to four years' imprisonment with a two-year ban on working in the field of public procurement, as well as a fine of 17,000 hryvnias. However, on the basis of Article 75, it exempted them from serving their sentence, setting a probation period of one year.

Corruption in the procurement of street lighting for Mykolaiv

On 9 April, it became known that Serhiy Bezdolnyi, who works for the municipal enterprise «Self-Supporting Construction Mechanisation Division» (hereinafter referred to as GDM), and businessman Vasyl Protsyshyn from Lviv region were notified of their suspicion of embezzlement of budget funds. He is charged with a violation under Part 4 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He faces imprisonment for a term of 5 to 8 years. In addition to working for the municipal enterprise, Serhii Bezdolnyi is the brother of Dmytro Bezdolnyi, director of the Department of Housing and Communal Services of the Mykolaiv City Council.

According to law enforcement officials, during the purchase of 65 street lighting control cabinets worth more than 5.3 million hryvnias, the Mykolaiv budget lost almost 600,000 hryvnias due to so-called «kickbacks» — 13% of the amount excluding VAT.

The director of the Mykolaiv Housing and Utilities Department, Dmytro Bezdolnyi, previously told nikvesti that he was considering stepping down from his position for the duration of the investigation due to the charges brought against his relative. It should be noted that the wife of the director of the Mykolaiv Housing and Utilities Department also works at the municipal enterprise where his brother is suspected of corruption.

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych promised to cooperate with the investigation into corruption in street lighting.

On 15 April, the Vitovskyi District Court of Mykolaiv chose a preventive measure for Serhii Bezdolnyi, a municipal worker suspected of corruption, in the form of arrest with the possibility of bail in the amount of more than 4.9 million hryvnias. As it turned out during the hearing, in September 2024, the Mykolaiv Department of Internal Financial Control, Supervision and Anti-Corruption approved a tender for the purchase of 65 street lighting cabinets at an inflated price.

The court also ruled to bring suspect Vasyl Protsyshyn to the court hearing by force. However, Protsyshyn did not appear at the hearing on 22 April. The court learned that his whereabouts are currently unknown, but he has not crossed the state border. As of the end of April, suspect businessman Vasyl Protsyshyn continued to hide from the investigation.

NikVesti previously reported on new evidence in the case — surveillance camera footage captured the moment when funds were transferred to an official of the municipal enterprise «Self-Supporting Construction Mechanisation Division» (GDM).

It should be noted that as part of this criminal proceeding, Mykolaiv law enforcement officers conducted a series of searches at firms and enterprises involved in the implementation of the municipal enterprise's tender schemes.

In particular, it became known that searches were conducted at Mykolaivoblenergo JSC as part of criminal proceedings regarding the possible embezzlement of budget funds allocated for the reconstruction of power grids. Searches were also conducted at the Mykolaivvodokanal municipal enterprise, where possible embezzlement is suspected in the conclusion of energy service contracts for the maintenance of water supply facilities.