Marhanets, a town where more than 40 thousand people lived before the full-scale war, has been terrorized by Russians for over three years. The town has frequent power and water shortages, and the residents suffer from regular artillery shelling and drone attacks from the occupied Enerhodar on the left bank of the Dnipro, which is seven kilometres away in a straight line.
While the town is struggling to survive, Hennadii Borovyk, the mayor of Marhanets, makes money. In a year and a half, the local “Agency of municipal services”, ensuring the heating for the critical infrastructure, has made over seventy agreements for a total of UAH 123 million, more than UAH 112 million of which were received by only four entrepreneurs, directly related to Borovyk.
NGL.media investigated how the provision for municipal needs can be transformed into one’s own business.
This investigation has become possible thanks to the participants of the NGL.media community, who have access to special content and possibilities.
In the autumn of 2022, hospitals, schools, kindergartens, and other municipal institutions in Marhanets faced the danger of being deprived of heating. The private company, “APS Power Technology”, which had been heating them since 2016, declared bankruptcy.
In 2016, this company built six new boiler houses that utilize pellets. At the time, it allowed the town to say no to old and inefficient boiler houses that used gas.
Pellets or fuel granules are biofuel, produced out of wood or agricultural residues. These may be sunflower seed husk, wheat bran, corn husk, sawdust, or straw. Pellets have the form of cylindrical granules of 6–8 mm. This is ecologically pure and relatively cheap fuel, which is easy to store and transport
After the bankruptcy of “APS Power Technology”, the Marhanets town council acquired the boiler houses and transferred them to the newly created municipal entreprise, “Agency of municipal services”. This municipal enterprise was headed by Henadii Riabokon This is the way – Henadii – the first name of Riabokon is stated in all the documents and registers , the former head of the company, which went bankrupt.
First agreements: inflated prices from the very beginning
The “Agency of municipal services” started procuring goods and services at the end of 2023. At present, the agency has already signed 71 agreements for the total price of UAH 123 million the data of Clarity Project . As expected, the most expensive expenditure item is fuel pellets, which cost UAH 112 million.
At the end of 2023, the municipal enterprise signed four identical agreements with four different sole entrepreneurs – Svitlana Sysoeva, Svitlana Ovdii, Halyna Pasichnyk, and Aliona Yefimova for a total estimate of UAH 35.2 million. Each sole entrepreneur received UAH 8.8 million for 1,300 tonnes of three kinds of fuel pellets.
All four of them supplied pellets at identical – and considerably inflated – prices. The agreements specify that for one tonne of pellets, made of sunflower seed husks and wheat bran, the “Agency of municipal services” paid UAH 5,500, though at the same time, the neighbouring communities bought the same pellets at the price of UAH 4,800 per tonne and UAH 4,490 per tonne respectively. The Marhanets municipal services bought wood pellets for UAH 11,000 per tonne, though they could have bought them for UAH 6,985 per tonne. Therefore, the total overpayment for the agreements of 2023 was over UAH 8.2 million.
Sky-high prices of 2025 and the interference of auditors
This spring, the “Agency of municipal services” started getting ready for the next heating season. On April 17, the enterprise had a single source contract The Marhanets community has a status of the territory of active combat actions, which allows the local state-run institutions to procure goods and services directly, without any competitive tenders. The municipal enterprise used this status in all its procurements of pellets for 7,200 tonnes of pellets at a total cost of UAH 76.8 million. This amount was equally shared between the abovementioned Svitlana Sysoeva and Svitlana Ovdii, who offered absolutely identical prices again.
Each entrepreneur was to supply 120 tonnes of three different kinds of pellets: made of sunflower seed husk, wheat bran, and wood. In the substantiation of agreements, the municipal services assured that Sysoeva and Ovdii offered the lowest prices among all the commercial proposals.
However, NGL.media found that the actual cost of pellets was overvalued at least twice. This time, the municipal services pay UAH 10,000 per one tonne of pellets, made of husks or bran, though market prices do not exceed UAH 5,500 per tonne. The “Agency of municipal services” decided to buy the most expensive wood pellets for UAH 12,000 per tonne, though they could have bought them for UAH 6,400 per tonne.
Simple calculations demonstrate that as a result the overpayment in these two procurements from Svitlana Sysoeva and Svitlana Ovdii exceeds UAH 35 million.
Fortunately, the State Audit Service also had questions about the cost of pellets for the Marhanets municipal services, and at the end of May, it initiated relevant audits. On the same day, the “Agency of municipal services” suddenly published additional agreements, in which the cost of pellets was decreased by UAH 29 million – from UAH 76.8 million to UAH 47.8 million.
The management of the “Agency of municipal services” refused to respond to NGL.media’s inquiry about the reasons for such a rapid drop in the cost. Instead, the municipal services explained it to the auditors by “fluctuations of prices for fuel pellets towards reduction”. The auditors were satisfied with the answer. At the same time, nobody seemed to have paid attention to the fact that these additional agreements on a decrease down to UAH 47.8 million were dated the same day, April 17, when the main agreements for UAH 76.8 million were signed. That’s one hell of a “price fluctuation” in the course of one day…
The team of the Mayor’s suppliers
NGL.media found out that Svitlana Sysoeva, Svitlana Ovdii, Halyna Pasichnyk, and Aliona Efimova were united not only by the sale of pellets at identical prices. They all seem to be straw parties, related to the mayor of Marhanets, Hennadii Borovyk. It looks like Borovyk is the main organizer and beneficiary of their activity.
Hennadii Borovyk, the mayor of the town of Marhanets (an Instagram photo)
31-year-old Svitlana Sysoeva signed the first agreement for UAH 8.8 million just one month after being registered as a sole entrepreneur. Along with the agreement, the electronic portal for public procurements Prozorro posted the protocol of pellet quality inspection with the specified address of the storage where the pellets were kept. It turned out that Sysoeva kept 1,300 tonnes of pellets in the Tomakivskyi mixed fodder plant, which belongs to Hennadii Borovyk, the mayor of Marhanets.
In addition, Sysoeva is actually Borovyk’s subordinate, because she is the director of the municipal “Centre of Art for Children and Students,” where she also manages the choreography group. Her husband, Oleksandr Sysoev, works as the chief engineer of the “Ahro-Khlib” company, which also belongs to the mayor.
At present, Svitlana Sysoeva has agreements for the supply of pellets to three municipal enterprises of Marhanets for a total cost of almost UAH 52 million the data of YouControl . She refused to talk to NGL.media about the impact of the town mayor on her business.
60-year-old Svitlana Ovdii started signing agreements with Marhanets municipal services in 2022. Initially, these were small agreements for the supply of flour, semolina, and starch, followed by contracts for pellets with a total cost exceeding UAH 51 million.
Svitlana Ovdii told NGL.media that she could not comment on anything because the person handling the sale of pellets was her accountant, Inna Kasianova, who, in her turn, refused to comment. It is noteworthy that Inna Kasianova is the chief accountant of the Tomakivskyi mixed fodder plant – the very same belonging to Borovyk.
33-year-old Halyna Pasichnyk was registered as a sole entrepreneur in 2022. Before the agreement on pellets, worth UAH 8.8 million, she had only two small subcontracts from the Marhanets central town hospital for repair and preparation for the heating season.
Pasichnyk refused to provide her comments on cooperation with municipal agencies, stating she was short of time. Her Instagram account confirms it – on her personal page, Halyna tells about losing weight, and on her commercial page she sells brand-name children’s clothes.
Her husband, Pavlo Pasichnyk, also has several small agreements with the “Agency of municipal services” for the cost of UAH 600 thousand. As a sole entrepreneur, he owns a couple of companies, one of which – “Slavia 2017” LLC – is registered at the address of “Ahro-Khlib” LLC, which belongs to Borovyk. In addition, last year, Pavlo Pasichnyk presented “Ahro-Khlib” at the auction for subcontracting the land.
Aliona Efimova was also registered as a sole entrepreneur not long before receiving the subcontract for UAH 8.8 million. During the registration, she specified the telephone number of Dmytro Buriak, the deputy of the Marhanets town council and the mayor’s son-in-law, as the contact phone.
Dmytro and Kateryna Buriak. Kateryna is the daughter of Hennadii Borovyk, the mayor of Marhanets (a photo from VKontakte)
At first, in the telephone conversation with NGL.media, Dmytro Buriak confirmed that he represented Yefimova, but having heard the questions, he refused to give any comments. “I don’t have any information and don’t know why Aliona Yefimova specified my telephone number during the registration. Bring these questions up with her,” Buriak said nervously. After the conversation, his telephone number disappeared from the contact data of sole entrepreneur Yefimova, but is preserved in the history of amendments of her data.
NGL.media didn’t succeed in getting in touch with Aliona Yefimova.
Family relations in the municipal scheme
Dmytro Buriak, the mayor’s son-in-law, is involved in this story from the very beginning. In 2023, he worked at the municipal enterprise “Infrastructure Development and Improvement of the Marhanets town territorial community”, which acquired boiler houses from the bankrupt “APS Power Technology” for the town Now, Dmytro Buriak heads another municipal enterprise, “Komunalnyk”, in Marhanets .
In that auction, the town was represented by Henadii Riabokon – the former director of “APS Power Technology” and the current director of the “Agency of municipal services”.
In the written comment for NGL.media, Henadii Riabokon assured that he selects the pellet suppliers, focusing only on the reliability and quality of the goods. “We don’t just have a reliable supplier but also support local entrepreneurs who support the town economy,” he explained.
The investigation by NGL.media demonstrates that the “Agency of municipal services” actually does support local entrepreneurs – but only on condition of being related to Hennadii Borovyk, the Marhanets mayor, his family or business.
For a year and a half, the circle of four entrepreneurs, directly related to the mayor, has been selling biofuel to the municipal enterprise at evidently inflated prices. The total cost of these agreements has already exceeded UAH 112 million.
Prior to publishing this material, NGL.media asked Hennadii Borovyk, the Marhanets mayor, to comment on his role in this story and the discovered facts of overpayments from the town budget, but he refused in a rude manner.
The author Yelyzaveta Chyp, the editor Oleh Onysko, translation Nelya Plakhota, cover Marta Kharkovets