In 2025, the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in Donetsk region invested 186 million hryvnias for the maintenance of state-important highways in Pokrovsky, Volnovakha, and Kramatorsk districts. The contractor was the company "Uniotransbuilding", which won the April tender.
The contract provides for maintaining the roadbed in good condition until at least March 2026. The contract includes more than 173 kilometers of key transport arteries leading directly to the front line. Some of these roads are already under the control of Russian troops, which calls into question the actual implementation of the work.
The list of tasks includes not only emergency and restoration measures, but also aesthetic maintenance work: installing and painting road signs, mowing grass, removing garbage and snow, cutting down overgrowth, pothole repair, eliminating cracks, and applying markings.
Performing such work in frontline areas is accompanied by a constant threat to workers due to the proximity to hostilities.
Donetsk region is no exception. In December 2024, the State Enterprise "Kharkiv Roads" announced a series of procurements for operational maintenance of roads in several districts of the region. The expected cost of the works ranged from 211 to 272 million hryvnias.
The tender documentation indicates the sites that are partially under occupation or in the immediate risk zone: the Vovchansk-Zemlyanky, Shestakove-Peremoga-Rubizhne, Tavilzhanka-Terny sections and other approaches to frontline villages.
Such projects call into question the effectiveness of spending budget funds. After all, in a situation where part of the roads is controlled by the enemy or is constantly under fire, restoration and maintenance becomes almost impossible.
Experts note that the transparency of such tenders and control over the execution of works should be key to avoiding the transformation of these million-dollar projects into formal schemes for "appropriating" the budget.
