On June 3, an investigating judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court chose a preventive measure for the de facto owner of a number of companies, whom NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office consider to be the organizer of a corruption scheme at the Tashlyk pumped-storage hydroelectric power station in Mykolaiv region. The court ruled for detention in custody with an alternative of bail in 30 million hryvnias.
How the scheme is structured according to the investigation
NABU and SAP materials describe a two-level structure. The first level is the contractor. One of the organizer's companies performed work on the completion of the PSPP on the basis of a general contractor agreement dating back to 2003. According to the investigation, despite systematic deadline violations and an open bankruptcy procedure against the contractor, Energoatom officials concluded over 70 additional agreements with it — each time changing the list of works, volumes, and timelines.
The second level is equipment procurement. Under one of those agreements, Energoatom purchased a set of automated control systems for the PSPP with a total value of over 305 million hryvnias.
"The procurement was carried out through a controlled foreign company, which made it possible to artificially inflate the equipment price by almost 170 million hryvnias."
— NABU
To justify the inflated price, officials of Yuzhenergobudu and related companies conducted their own market research — at the direction of those same Energoatom officials whom the investigation considers dependent on the scheme's organizer. The research results formed the basis of the "market" prices in the contract.
Who is under suspicion
NABU and SAP announced suspicions against two individuals: the de facto owner of a number of contractor companies (Mykolaiv publication Nikcenter identifies him as Matvii Yasenytskyi, one of the wealthiest businessmen in Mykolaiv region — NABU has not officially confirmed the name) and the former head of the department of the separate subdivision "Atomprojektinzhyniering" of the state enterprise NAEK Energoatom. The actions of both are qualified under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — seizure of property through abuse of official position on an especially large scale.
SAP against bail size
The decision to arrest with bail of 30 million hryvnias did not satisfy the prosecution. As NABU reported, the prosecutor believes the bail amount is insufficient to neutralize risks and is already preparing an appeal of the investigating judge's ruling.
Notably, the investigation obtained materials from this proceeding not through targeted investigation, but in the course of another case — criminal proceeding No. 52022000000000387 from 2022, related to abuses in Energoatom on a broader scale.
Context: the facility and the money
Tashlyk PSPP is a maneuvering reserve facility of critical infrastructure on the Southern Bug River in Mykolaiv region, part of the Energoatom system. In 2025, the company announced a new completion phase with an increase in the level of the Oleksandrivsk reservoir. 170 million hryvnias is the difference between the declared and, according to the investigation, the real price of one set of equipment for managing the station. The total contract is 305 million hryvnias: that is, according to NABU's calculations, more than half the amount was an inflated price.
If SAP wins the appeal and the bail remains unattainable — the suspect remains in custody pending trial. But if 30 million hryvnias are actually paid, the key issue in the case will become procedural: whether the investigation can prove the personal influence of the owner on Energoatom officials — this connection is the crux of the accusation, without which the scheme falls apart into a set of civil agreements.
