"Zaporizhzhya empire" of Shurma: Ex-deputy of Yermak fled abroad, while his brother-beneficiary continues to manage assets

From a pit with a pack of dogs to solar stations with million-dollar profits. The former CEO of "Zaporizhstal" and ex-Deputy Head of the Office of the President, Rostyslav Shurma, has left the country. What remains for Zaporizhzhya residents are several landfills, unfinished constructions, a few new high-rises, and hectares of land awaiting a new owner.

This is discussed in the investigation by ZCR.

Imagine that you are the de facto head of Zaporizhzhya’s largest metallurgical giant. The current mayor is a former manager from "your" plant. The majority in the city council either consists of current managers or has long-standing, warm ties with your enterprise.

It’s no surprise that under such conditions, you could amass a significant collection of Zaporizhzhya lands—both promising and less so. Add to that some business dealings in municipal services. And as the cherry on top, build several sizable solar stations in the scorching steppes outside the city.

This is how Rostyslav Shurma’s "Zaporizhzhya empire" was formed.

In terms of declining profitability, we would break it down as follows:

solar stations on the outskirts of the city;
plots for housing of varying readiness—from pits to brand-new high-rises;
more or less profitable businesses "integrated" into municipal services;
plots bought and resold, which the city authorities leased out 20 years ago.

Who represents Rostyslav Shurma in Zaporizhzhya assets?

The structure of the business group is relatively simple. There are several dozen companies that lease land or run separate businesses. At least a share of each is owned by one of two investment funds: CN-DVCIF "Helios" or CN-DVCIF "Quantum". Some companies are fully owned by them.

The ultimate beneficiary of both funds is Rostyslav’s brother, Oleh Shurma.

The main "office" of the brothers in Zaporizhzhya is a convenient and cozy building of a former bank. It is located deep in the courtyards on Peremohy Street, not far from Villa Oliva café. Once, heads of key committees of the Zaporizhzhya City Council and numerous businessmen gathered here.

Journalist Yuriy Sydorov conducts an anti-corruption tour near the "office" of companies affiliated with Rostyslav Shurma. Photo: "Hetman", 2019

So, what exactly is managed from here?

Who gets sunshine on 245 hectares?

"Shurma’s solar stations," thanks to an investigation by Bihus.info, and later by NABU, became known across the country. The state paid hundreds of millions for electricity generated by them… when the facilities were already under occupation.

But the "solar business" of the Shurma family did not end there. Now its "stronghold" is Zaporizhzhya. On the outskirts of the city, the "empire" owns a significant amount of land for solar stations. In 2019-20, the city council allocated a large portion of the free and flat suburban wastelands for this purpose.

The investment is actually not bad: agriculture in Zaporizhzhya is becoming less and less profitable, while it feels like there is only more sunshine. The problem is that the land was allocated through manipulations.

To lease a plot "from scratch," a competition must be held. Theoretically, this should allow the city to secure the best financial terms for itself. In practice, Zaporizhzhya officials somehow preferred to bypass them.

Thus, wastelands were simply designated by a decisive ruling as "For energy infrastructure"—sometimes in violation of the General Plan. Since energy was a priority sector even before the invasion, such plots could be allocated without a competition.

What’s the problem? Energy infrastructure includes power lines, transformer substations, and other equipment that transmits electricity and adjusts its capacity. This is a non-profit activity. Generation, which includes solar stations, is a business. There is money to be made here—and it would be nice to share it with the community from which the land is leased.

Perhaps someone did share the money. One way or another, a number of companies, where the ultimate beneficiary was Shurma’s brother Oleh, amassed a considerable piece of land around Zaporizhzhya on simplified terms—about 245 hectares. To put it into perspective: this is larger than the entire area of Sotsmisto.

A detailed description and list of plots can be found in our separate article. Here, we’ll keep it brief. On the lands of companies affiliated with the Shurma family, three SES (solar energy station) complexes have been built:

on the far outskirts of the Southern microdistrict—15 hectares leased by LLC "Renewable Energy Zaporizhzhya"
near the third Shevchenkivsky district—38 hectares leased by "Solar Park Development"
at the intersection of Orikhivska Street and the "Kharkiv-Simferopol" highway—36 hectares leased by LLC "Solen Energy"

These stations are operational—and generate income. According to the companies’ annual reports (REZ, SPD, SE), their total revenue for 2024 amounted to 405 million hryvnias. However, according to the same official reports, the net profit from the stations is negligible: only a few million per SES.

Four more plots are awaiting solar stations, but they have not been built yet.

Photograph of the Peredatochynskyi quarry, near which an SES was never built. More for aesthetics—we really love these places

These are plots in remote or industrial areas:

between the flooded Peredatochynskyi quarry and the waste landfill;
between the settlement and the cemetery in Levanevskyi settlement;
near the aforementioned SES in the Southern district, closer to the city;
on the territory of the former hardware factory between "Zaporizhstal" and "Zaporizhvohnetryv."

The last location is somewhat surprising: metallurgical dust would likely significantly reduce the efficiency of SES panels. What did they actually intend to build here? We are unlikely to find out until the shelling ends.

From a pit to a high-rise

Companies associated with brothers Oleh and Rostyslav Shurma currently "hold" two completed buildings, one unfinished construction, and one pit.

Here, too, schemes were involved. To save on rent, the land was "left" to one or another municipal enterprise—they have benefits. But this was purely formal.

Residential Complex Osnova on Poshtova Street

In reality, the buildings are constructed (and later sold) by a private company, which the municipal enterprise supposedly commissioned. The developer and owner of the high-rise are simply called a "contractor," although in reality, they reap the greatest profit. The municipal enterprise might get just a few apartments.

The list of "residential" plots registered to Shurma’s companies is as follows:

Residential Complex Osnova behind the "Aurora" shopping center. Completed. The land was used by the municipal enterprise "Parking," and the contractor was Oleh Shurma’s company "Azimut Trading Zaporizhzhya." The municipal enterprise "Parking" received 5 apartments.
Residential Complex Smart at the beginning of Sedova Street. Completed. Probably the most honest project on the list. They simply bought an old unfinished building, registered the land to a new company "Comfort Center Zaporizhzhya," and completed it.
Residential Complex Central, at the intersection of Peremohy Street and Central Boulevard. Unfinished. The land is used by the municipal enterprise "Capital Construction Management," which works "in partnership" with "Azimut Trading Group." The developer is the well-known Kyiv developer "Geos-UKB." Work is slowly ongoing.
A large pit on Vernadsky Square, near the tram line. The pit is used by the same municipal enterprise "Capital Construction Management." The contractor is Shurma’s company "Horizont Plus-2016", which has not started work. Over the past 18 years, this plot has changed hands between three or four tenants. Prospects remain bleak for now.

More lands—unknown for what

If you walk through the corridors of the city’s architecture department, you can see the dream city. These are Zaporizhzhya projects from numerous developers. The imagination is somewhat monotonous: mainly high-rises on the walls. Nevertheless, developers had grand plans for Zaporizhzhya.

And all these projects required land.

In reality, Zaporizhzhya’s territory began to be "sliced up" 20 years ago, during Yevhen Kartashov’s time. But the photos on the walls of the Architecture Department remained just photos: either a crisis or an "overseer"…

Plots allocated for development were left to decay. They just needed to be "picked up." Rostyslav Shurma’s companies did exactly that. They were interested in neglected but promising locations.

The stadium plot was "picked up," and its designated purpose was changed to residential and public development

Let’s clarify right away: no, communal land under lease cannot be sold. But you can sell the company that leases this land. And then, in a simple way, "transfer" the lease rights to your structures.

What in Zaporizhzhya belongs to Shurma’s companies (or rather, is leased by them):

The "plate" dance floor in Metallurgists’ Park, before the exit to the dam;
The old "Dniprospetsstal" stadium near the "Rainbow" cascade;
The former territory of the children’s camp "Koksokhim" on Velykyi Luh;
The old "Vodokanal" base on the Domakha channel.

Among other notable plots that passed through the hands of affiliated companies:

Voznesenivska Hill with Taras’s pear tree. However, the company leasing this plot was already sold to "Epicenter", which then resold it further;
The abandoned unfinished office center Energy Standard Plaza near the Four Points hotel at the intersection of Shevchenko Boulevard and Naberezhna. It, too, was resold along with the leasing company.

But it wasn’t just real estate that interested the prominent manager; launching new businesses with budget flows was also on the agenda.

Cozy startups with a budget

And one more small business of Shurma in Zaporizhzhya. It’s not very noticeable but provides real money—unlike hectares of land "for someday." These are several private boiler houses. They were built on the basis of old heating network nodes leased to Shurma’s companies. After that, they were transferred to private ownership through another scheme.

On the Right Bank, the company "Energospetsinvest Comfort" has been supplying heat to educational institutions in the Dnipro district for several years. On the Left Bank, in the Shevchenkivsky district, this is done by "City Grad Prom". Together, their revenue (not profit, we note) amounts to 60-70 million hryvnias per year.

Rumor has it that much larger heat production volumes were initially planned—almost for half the city. They hoped to achieve this with cheap fuel from lignin: tons of raw material have been lying as a "technogenic deposit" on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhya since Soviet times.

But impurities in lignin damaged the equipment, and cleaning it was difficult. So they had to switch to other fuel pellets. This is more expensive—and therefore, the business operates on a smaller scale than planned.

Waste and gas

"Weltum-Zaporizhzhya," the main waste disposal operator and de facto manager of the city landfill, at first glance, has no direct ties to Shurma’s empire. But indirect connections exist.

The main co-owner of «Weltum-Zaporizhzhya» Andriy Sherstnyov has a joint business with Shurma – at the same landfill site. Sherstnyov and Shurma together own the company «Biogas-Ukraine», which extracts fuel from the depths of the dump.

Waste landfill on Levanevskyi. The height of the waste mound is now approaching 9 floors

Sherstnyov has also been spotted in «shadow office» of Shurma on Peremohy Street, where the heads of most of the businesses we listed regularly gathered.

Conclusions

Zaporizhzhya did not become a Klondike for Shurma. Most of the family’s local wealth lies like a stone and more often demands money than generates it.

The reason – war? Not only.

Shurma, the «overseer», and their numerous predecessors created a system in which it was primarily convenient to divert some interesting piece of property to themselves. Making it profitable – well, that’s a matter of luck.

Author: Serhiy Sydorov