Military expert Oleksiy Hetman has recently warned that the Russian occupiers have very little time left to reach it.
The commander of the 108th separate mechanised battalion ‘Da Vinci Wolves’, Serhiy Filimonov, says that the aggressor country's army wants to get closer to the Dnipro region, so it is not storming Pokrovsk head-on, but trying to bypass the city from the south to the west.
But is the Dnipro region, the small homeland of our president, ready to defend itself?
This is a very interesting question.
"Condor, commander of a battalion of unmanned systems:
- Fortifications are being built in the Pokrovske direction, albeit according to the methods of the Soviet Union. However, there is not yet the necessary number of people to man these structures. Our war has changed a lot in terms of technology. And no one has occupied these fortifications that were dug up then, because it would be suicide. At the same time, the technique of building fortifications is changing. Nowadays, they try to listen to the military and build structures of the required quality and size...
So, the enemy is about to cross the borders of the Dnipro region, and the fortifications are being built according to the standards of half a century ago? It's an interesting defence.
Since 7 February 2023, the Dnipropetrovs'k Regional State Administration has been headed by Serhiy Petrovych Lysak. Prior to that, he was the head of the SBU in Dnipropetrovs'k Region from 19 July 2022, and from May 2020 to July 2022, he worked as the head of the SBU in Zhytomyr Region.
This region of Ukraine is famous for the numerous shadow incomes received by SBU officers there from illegal sales of amber, timber and granite from the rich quarries.
The name of Vasyl Malyuk, the current head of the SBU, who became a millionaire there, is closely associated with Zhytomyr region.
Serhiy Lysak, who is Malyuk's godfather, is very close friends with the leaders of local Neprovskyy OCGs, Igor Khromov ‘Zhaba’ and Oleg Omelchenko ‘Zhibier’, and does business with them.
As the eastern hordes approached the region's borders, a new source of profit emerged - the theft of funds allocated for the construction of fortifications.
The head of the Regional Military Administration, Serhiy Lysak, continues to be responsible for the defence of Dnipropetrovs'k region, and he actively promotes the construction of fortifications.
- There are never too many fortifications. They will be powerful. 10 kilometres of anti-tank ditches, dugouts and caponiers, dragon's teeth," he said.
"And how can he not promote himself if every day increases his personal capital by many hundreds of thousands of hryvnias?
For example, the British Financial Times reported that "more than seven million dollars in 2024 were spent by the Dnipro region on the construction of defensive fortifications. However, no results have been seen, which is why 30 criminal cases have been opened over alleged embezzlement."
According to Andriy Bogdanets, a member of the temporary special commission, a commission has been sent to the region to check whether the Financial Times' statement is true. Experts will also check information on 30 criminal cases:
- If this information is available, of course, the perpetrators should be punished as soon as possible. We must show our international partners that we do not support this corruption. Fortifications are a life-saver, first and foremost, for our soldiers. And if they are not there, it is terrible...
As for who should build the fortifications, Bohdanets explained that there are three lines of defence. The first one is built by the military. The second and third are built by local authorities with the help of contractors:
- Funds are allocated to the OVA and also to the military. The military says where fortifications need to be built, the JAC allocates funds and looks for contractors who build under military supervision...
Both the JAC and other controlling bodies, such as the system of state architectural and construction control, the State Bureau of Investigation, the prosecutor's office, the National Police, etc. monitor construction.
When asked about the mechanism for punishing corrupt officials, the official replied that the problem is primarily with judges who are ‘loyal’ to such crimes.
Bohdanets admitted that embezzlement in the construction of fortifications almost always goes unpunished:
- Here the question will be to the judges, why they are so loyal to corrupt officials. And why, relatively speaking, cases are opened against corrupt officials only when they are already abroad. We see this very often, frankly, and it is sad...
Under the roof of Serhiy Lysak and the state authorities under his control, corrupt officials in Dnipro are embezzling funds allocated for the construction of fortifications with impunity.
Significantly, this criminal business has long gone beyond the Dnipro region itself.
Recently, the Economic Court of Dnipropetrovs'k region held a hearing that revealed an interesting strategy to whitewash corrupt officials and the companies they control that have been embezzling from the budget.
The case in question is the Department of Public Order and Civil Protection of the Dnipro City Council. The former head of the department, Oleksandr Viktorovych Chudnovskyi, could have been directly involved.
Let us quote the document (case 953/104/24):
"The Investigative Department of the Main Department of the National Police in Kharkiv Region is conducting a pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings No. 42023052110000112 of 06 November 2023 on the grounds of a criminal offence under Part 4 of Art. 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on the fact that during 2022-2023, under martial law...
...the circle of officials of the Dnipro City Council who, having entered into a criminal conspiracy with officials of military units of the Dnipro region, military unit NUMBER_1, which is part of the TRO ‘...’, military unit NUMBER_2, which carry out measures for the defence of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region, and representatives of commercial structures, organised a criminal scheme for the embezzlement and misappropriation of budget funds in particularly large amounts allocated from the local budget and transferred to business entities for procurement, has been established
Here are the companies that, according to the investigator, participated in this embezzlement scheme:
PRIVATE ENTERPRISE ‘FIRM ’NOT‘ / 23794161
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY “BIGBUDSTROY” / 32406126
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY ’LD INVEST" / 40122168
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY BIGSTAGE LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY / 42178920
TORGZEM LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY / 42634614
Since 2016, Borys Filatov has been the Mayor of Dnipro and the Chairman of the City Council, with whom Oleksandr Chudnovskyi had close business and political ties.
The head of the Dnipro region, Lysak, privatised the corrupt processes of stealing budget funds in the region itself, while the mayor of Dnipro, Filatov, began a corrupt expansion in Kharkiv region, where everyone who has access to budget funds is already stealing from the defence sector.
Sources say that this ‘redistribution of the market’ happened after numerous “shootings” and showdowns between Lysak, who did not let the Dnipro mayor have a piece of the action, and the latter was forced to recover by ‘earning’ for Kharkiv.
After all this, who would be surprised that here and there the defences of our defenders are beginning to crumble, even though they seem to be in fortified positions?
