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Construction company “Kalmius”, established in March 2025 with a charter capital of just 5,000 hryvnias, secured state orders worth over 6.4 billion hryvnias within 20 months of operation. The largest contracts were awarded after Ivan Fedorov, who previously headed the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, took charge of the Recovery Agency.
LLC “Construction Company ‘Kalmius’” (Unified State Register of Legal Entities code 45842134) appeared in the registry on 7 March 2025. Danylo Sandirev is listed as the sole owner and director. Before entering the market for major infrastructure projects, he specialised in installing saunas, fireplaces and chimneys, services he still advertises. Initially, the company’s legal address was in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka in the Kyiv region, and it moved its operations to Zaporizhzhia only in July 2025.
The firm received its first state contract just two weeks after registration. Its construction experience was verified through a subcontract with the company “Posytyv”, which was building an underground lyceum. This company was registered in Melitopol before the full-scale invasion, where Ivan Fedorov was then in charge. After Fedorov became the head of the region, “Posytyv” relocated to Zaporizhzhia. The former owner of “Posytyv” was Mykola Bilyi, a deputy of the Melitopol City Council.
Subsequently, the Antimonopoly Committee fined “Posytyv” for a cartel agreement during tenders, resulting in the company losing access to state procurement. “Kalmius” filled its niche.
In May 2025, the state enterprise “Local Roads of Zaporizhzhia Region” signed three contracts with the new company for a total amount of nearly 659 million hryvnias. The projects involved the construction of a building for the regional children’s hospital and shelters for Gymnasiums No. 4 and No. 76. “Kalmius” was the sole participant in all three procurements.
At the time the deals were signed, the enterprise’s director, Viktoria Repashevskaya, had been working as an external advisor to Fedorov since March 2024. The State Audit Service demanded the termination of these three contracts. Auditors noted that the company’s proposal did not meet the technical specification, the documentation listed materials from countries not permitted under the EU Ukraine Facility programme, and the firm had existed for only one month at the time of the tenders.
The client refused to terminate the deals, instead suing the auditors and winning in the first instance. The State Audit Service appealed the decision. Meanwhile, in July, “Kalmius” received four more contracts over nine days for the protection of transformers, each worth 30.7 million hryvnias. These deals were concluded without open bidding.
On 25 August, the Zaporizhzhia Recovery Service announced a tender for the installation of anti-drone protection for roads, with an estimated cost of 921.7 million hryvnias excluding VAT. On 4 September, Ivan Fedorov became the head of the Recovery Agency, to which the regional services are subordinate. The next day, “Kalmius” submitted the only proposal. On 11 September, the company was declared the winner, and on 18 September, Contract No. 611-26 for 1.1046 billion hryvnias including VAT was signed.
The contract price turned out to be only 0.13% lower than the estimated amount. The agreement is valid until 31 December 2027 and provides for the installation of 4 million square metres of protective mesh over roads and bridges.
On 22 September, the company received two more large contracts from the Dnipropetrovsk Recovery Service. Contracts No. B-R-9 and No. B-R-10 for the design and reconstruction of energy facilities No. 9 and No. 10 were concluded without bidding. The cost of each was 515.6 million hryvnias, with the total amount exceeding 1.031 billion hryvnias. Material prices in the documents were concealed.
A comparative analysis revealed discrepancies in the cost of works. For example, installing one support under the Zaporizhzhia contract costs 7,500 hryvnias, whereas similar work in the Kharkiv region in March 2026 cost around 2,000 hryvnias. Mesh installation in Zaporizhzhia is three times more expensive, and the installation of wire stays is 1.5 times more expensive.
In November, the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration transferred two more orders to “Kalmius” for the construction of protective structures for critical infrastructure. The value of one contract was 655 million hryvnias, making it the largest state subcontract of the week in Ukraine. The second contract was valued at 173 million hryvnias. In total, the company’s portfolio of state orders exceeded 6.4 billion hryvnias, of which nearly 3 billion hryvnias were received after Fedorov’s appointment as head of the Recovery Agency.
To carry out the works, “Kalmius” rents equipment from the company “Morena SK”, which is involved in a case by the Bureau of Economic Security regarding the construction of fortifications in Zaporizhzhia Region. According to the investigation, “Morena SK”, “Melsiti”, “Akvibud”, “Alliance Som” and “Fundament-L” were controlled by one individual. Law enforcement agencies link “Morena SK” to former Melitopol City Council deputy Serhiy Bilovol.
The investigation established the overvaluation of metal posts, “dragon’s teeth” and protective mesh — precisely the materials required by “Kalmius”’s road contract. Fedorov previously acknowledged knowing Bilovol but denied that the companies “Akvibud” and “Melsiti” received subcontracts due to this connection.
It is also noted that at “Kalmius”’s first registered address, two other companies with state subcontracts in Zaporizhzhia Region are located — “Zaporizhbudgrup” and “Anstroy Proekt”. The material also includes an analysis of cost estimates for installing protective mesh, involved subcontractors and the chain of equipment rental.
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