Ukrzaliznytsia paid almost 200 million hryvnias to Rothschild without a tender amid billion-dollar losses and rising debts

Ukrzaliznytsia paid almost 200 million hryvnias to Rothschild without a tender amid billion-dollar losses and rising debts

«Ukrzaliznytsia» signed an agreement with the French company Rothschild & Cie for the provision of financial markets management services worth 199 million UAH. The procurement was conducted without open bidding, and the contract itself is classified for the period of martial law.

As writes blogger Volodymyr Bondarenko, the contract was signed against the backdrop of a sharp deterioration in the state company’s financial performance after the change in management.

In 2023, «Ukrzaliznytsia» received 4.8 billion UAH in net profit. In 2024, it was headed by Oleksandr Persovskyi, and already for the results of 2025, the company showed a net loss of 7.8 billion UAH.

Over the same period, the debt burden increased more than threefold — from 17.3 billion to 51.7 billion UAH.

Against this background, the average salary of «Ukrzaliznytsia» employees increased from 16.5 thousand UAH to 21.3 thousand UAH. The level of top management remuneration is not officially disclosed.

Before his appointment at UZ, Persovskyi had been working as the first deputy CEO of «Ukrposhta» Ihor Smilyanskyi since 2016. Both are associated with the quota of Borys Lozhkin.

Lozhkin himself is the vice president of the World Jewish Congress, whose board is headed by French banker David Rene de Rothschild — a representative of the financial group associated with Rothschild & Cie.

Thus, the agreement with the French bank was concluded without a competition and under the stamp of secrecy precisely during the period when the state carrier is demonstrating record losses and rapid debt growth.