State-owned energy company Centrenergo has transferred another tranche of 45.3 million UAH to LLC «Opytnyi Zavod M» for additional reconstruction of physical protection at the Zmiiv Thermal Power Plant in the Kharkiv region. The contract was awarded without an open tender, despite the company currently being investigated in a criminal probe for replacing specialized blast-resistant concrete with standard civil-grade material during earlier restoration work at the facility.
In late June, Zmiiv TPP signed supplementary agreement No. 16/294 with «Opytnyi Zavod M» for «unforeseen» work to protect autotransformers. The documents were signed on behalf of the plant by long-time director Ihor Babenko and chief engineer Pavlo Kurylo. The procurement bypassed open bidding by leveraging a legal clause that permits awarding new contracts to an existing vendor if the value does not exceed 50% of the primary contract.
The contractor has been operating at the plant since late 2024, securing more than 472 million UAH across five state contracts.
«One of the core contracts for Level II physical protection at Zmiiv TPP, valued at 245.7 million UAH, became the subject of a law enforcement investigation over alleged embezzlement and material forgery.»
According to law enforcement, during the construction of protective structures, the contractor utilized subcontractors (PE «Kanal» and LLC «Geomaks») to supply materials. Instead of high-grade industrial concrete (classes C32/40 and C35/45) engineered to withstand blast waves and shrapnel, standard civil-grade concrete (class C25/30) was delivered to the site.
On paper, however, documentation was falsified to reflect high-grade materials. Investigators believe that Karen Airapetyan, director of PE «Kanal,» signed the forged quality certificates. Forensic evaluations estimate direct financial damages to the state from the material substitution at 8.1 million UAH.
LLC «Opytnyi Zavod M» is owned and managed by Nataliia Sapiolkina. Originally based in Mariupol, the company re-registered in Transcarpathia following the full-scale invasion. In recent years, the firm shifted its focus from metal trading to winning multi-million hryvnia contracts for critical energy infrastructure reconstruction.
Despite the firm and its business partners facing court proceedings related to asset misappropriation and document fraud, Centrenergo continues to award new contracts to «Opytnyi Zavod M» for critical energy infrastructure projects.