Who is bankrupting the Odesa Sea Commercial Port

The Odesa Commercial Sea Port is an international transport hub through which thousands of tons of cargo pass daily. Terminals, customs, warehouses, and officially all property on its territory belong to the state.

But the main profit is distributed into the pockets of a very limited circle of people, which is why scandals constantly flare up around the port enterprise, and at the level of the Ukrainian government, wars are constantly waged over control of the port. Thus, in 2019, with the change of power in the country, the head of the Odesa Commercial Sea Port also changed. A new director, Oleksiy Myaskovskyi, replaced the group controlled by Hroysman and Omelyan, behind whom stood Avakov (none of them managed to win the war for the country’s ports, so they had to negotiate) and was blamed for organizing schemes that resulted in the port’s losses of 180 million hryvnias.

What he did with the schemes of the previous leaders is unknown. But at the end of 2020, the port showed profits of 66.5 million hryvnias:

But at the end of December, the port started experiencing turmoil again – a former SSU and customs officer, Denys Lutyi, was appointed to the newly introduced position of deputy director for security. On January 16 of this year, the then-minister of infrastructure, Krykliy, began an audit of the port’s economic activity and suspended Myaskovskyi from his duties. The audit did not reveal any violations, but as a result of the port management by acting head Oleksandr Harmash, the enterprise suddenly began to show losses again. About 16 million hryvnias were counted in five months.

According to "Dumska" on June 14, Myaskovskyi tried to return to his office – the new head of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov, canceled the audit of the port’s economic activity, which was conducted by the order of the former minister Vladyslav Krykliy.

But here the port head faced an unpleasant surprise – his office was blocked, and the deputy for security, appointed by Krykliy, Denys Lutyi, beat up Myaskovskyi’s accompanying port worker, who came to collect his employment record book, which had not been given to him earlier. According to witnesses, Lutyi punched and kicked the port worker, causing his face to bleed. The police arrived and sent the victim for a medical examination.

As a result of the conflict, the port director eventually broke into his office but did not find the port’s official seal, which was kept in the chancellery’s safe.

The seal will most likely be restored without much trouble since the resistance of the group controlling the port during the five-month audit was weak. But who these people are and what Vyacheslav Krykliy was striving for by appointing an audit of Myaskovskyi’s activities seems to be something that a new audit will establish.

After all, let us recall that in just five months of their work, the port managed to incur losses of 16 million. During this time, the port was headed by acting director Oleksandr Harmash and the mentioned Denys Lutyi. In addition, the documents by which the port worked with companies still connected to Myaskovskyi’s predecessor as port director, Ihor Tkachuk, were signed by a certain Shvets and Serhiy Bakalo, head of the port fleet.

Immediately after their arrival, the port returned to the practices of Tkachuk’s era, when tugs were leased on a short-term basis to private firms at reduced rates. This, by the way, almost bankrupted the port. For example, in January 2021, Oleksandr Harmash leased three tugs – "Udarnik," "Novator," and "Patriot" to the Mykolaiv firm "Nik-fleet" for a year, but for some reason with hourly payment. This money did not cover even the routine maintenance costs to keep the vessels in normal technical condition.

Read also: Who is Behind the Black Sea Tugs?

As "Dumska" wrote then, "thus, the reason for the sudden dismissal of the head of OMTP Oleksiy Myaskovskyi became clear. Let us recall, he stopped the corrupt practice of hourly renting out tugs, which allowed the port to get out of a debt hole of 110 million. Evidently, the environment of Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy decided to return to the old schemes."

Experts noted that during Tkachuk’s leadership, such a scheme had a dual purpose. Firstly, the difference between the real rental price of the tugs and the price at which they were leased to private individuals was transferred in envelopes and further distributed along the chain to all involved in the scheme. And secondly, the port was deliberately being driven to bankruptcy so that it could be sold for pennies to one of the financially-industrial groups of the country close to power. With the change of power, only the financial-industrial group close to this power has changed.

If during Tkachuk’s times it was Hroysman’s FPG, now there is no unified opinion on this subject. But there is a certain oddity in Myaskovskyi’s removal from office. The fact is that he was appointed by Krykliy, who also removed Oleksiy Myaskovskyi from the port’s leadership and appointed the audit.

In turn, after Krykliy’s departure from the position of Minister of Infrastructure, the new minister reinstates Myaskovskyi to his position. Moreover, as people familiar with the port situation claim, Myaskovskyi’s task was no different from Tkachuk’s task – the port needed to be bankrupted. Moreover, during Tkachuk’s times, Myaskovskyi held the position of head of the legal service in the port, and all documents signed by the port director passed through Myaskovskyi’s hands.

At the same time, for some reason, the organizers of this strategic scheme understood that the new leader, i.e., Myaskovskyi, should demonstrate success, so they allowed him to bring the port into positive numbers – it was not difficult at all. Thus, in the middle of last year, Myaskovskyi leased state port tugs to the company "BLAST" (Black Sea Towing) with minimal profitability. This, on the one hand, slightly reduced the profits of the private company, and on the other hand, increased the port’s profits. For understanding – "BLAST" earns about 20 million hryvnias per month on the leased tugs. That is, the profit of the Odesa Commercial Sea Port for the past year is three months of "BLAST’s" work. The remaining nine – are the pure profit of the company’s owners, among whom are named Yevhen Chernyshenko, former SSU employee Oleksandr Kovtun, and head of the agency department of the company "Altair" (servicing Glencore in the port of Chornomorsk), Yuriy Dmytruk.

Of course, these people do not qualify as a financial-industrial group capable of absorbing the port. According to some reports, a larger figure stands behind them – a certain Yuriy Vaskov, who is closely connected with Myaskovskyi. The latter is even openly called a subordinate of Vaskov.

Yuriy Vaskov was the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure in 2015. And in 2013-2015, he headed the Administration of Sea Ports of Ukraine, where he came from the position of director of the state enterprise "Odesa Commercial Sea Port." The same one currently headed by Myaskovskyi.

On June 10, he again took the position of Deputy Minister of Infrastructure: The new deputy minister of infrastructure became a former official of Pivovarskyi Vaskov with 4 apartments and land, who appears in a criminal case.

And it suddenly turned out that the audit, appointed by the former minister Krykliy, found no violations in the actions of the head of the Odesa Commercial Sea Port, Oleksiy Myaskovskyi. And he can resume his duties. And the group of people who managed the port in his absence somehow suspiciously weakly imitated resistance and only "lost the seal" of the enterprise. This is not a problem at all in today’s reality.

Returning to the question – who is bankrupting the Odesa Commercial Sea Port, we can answer – the people behind the Minister of Infrastructure. Moreover, the surname of the minister doesn’t matter. In specific historical realities, for port directors like Tkachuk, it was Hroysman’s and Omelyan’s people, none of whom could oust the other from control over the Administration of Sea Ports of Ukraine. And this, quite possibly, saved the Odesa port from bankruptcy.

During Krykliy’s time, it was most likely the group of the Minister of Internal Affairs, but they also failed due to further governmental upheavals. According to some reports, the current Minister of Infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov, is backed by Lyovochkin and Vavrysh. Although Kubrakov naturally denies friendship with both, his rapid career – from ordinary "Servants of the People" to director of "Ukravtodor" and a minister – raises many questions. Especially if you remember that he has very little to do with these fields, being an IT specialist.

His new deputy, the aforementioned Yuriy Vaskov, who started his career under Yanukovych, is much more knowledgeable in the field of maritime transport. And Lyovochkin and Vavrysh come from the same environment.

However, the answer to the question of who is interested in the bankruptcy of the Odesa Commercial Sea Port will be revealed soon. Apparently, the bankruptcy of the port will not be delayed, and after its sale, we will know the name of the new owner for sure.