Kryvyi Rih is rapidly turning into an ecological disaster zone, where the norms of the law and state interests give way to the appetites of private business. Within the residential development, contrary to the direct prohibition of state building standards DBN B.2.2-12:2019, giant quarries of LLC "Rudomine" are expanding. Their total area has already exceeded 70 hectares, and the expansion continues.
Such a large-scale penetration of mining into the urban environment was not possible by chance. According to sources, a key role in this was played by a well-coordinated management vertical, at which level decisions were made that opened the way for companies to access the subsoil without real competition. This system includes officials from the Ministry of Economy, the State Service for Geosciences and Mineral Resources, and the regional administration, in particular Oleksiy Sobolev, Ostap Semerak, Ivanna Smachylo, Vladyslav Gaivanenko, and Oleh Hotsynets.
It was with their participation that in 2017 and 2021, Rudomine LLC received special permits No. 6236 and No. 6511 for the development of the "Southern Pit" site and adjacent territories. The permits were granted without holding auctions and open bidding, which is a key tool for ensuring competition and fair revenues to the budget.
Instead of a full-fledged geological study of the subsoil, purchased geological information was used, and potential environmental risks were covered up with outdated conclusions of environmental impact assessments. According to experts, the technical and economic indicators of the projects were artificially underestimated by at least seven times. At the initial stage alone, this led to budget losses of more than 25 million hryvnias. And this is without taking into account subsequent schemes with the use of preferential rental rates.
However, Rudomain's activities went far beyond the extraction of minerals. At the center of the scheme were the assets of the state-owned enterprise Giprokoks, which owned strategic scientific developments and patents. Due to the creation of the joint venture LLC SP Giprokoks, the state actually lost its controlling stake, and key assets came under the control of structures associated with Rudomain.
Moreover, part of these assets ended up in the hands of an affiliated foreign company - the Czech Giprokoks Europe SRO. Thus, strategic developments created at state expense were removed from the direct control of Ukraine and integrated into private, including foreign, business structures.
Against this backdrop, Kryvyi Rih is not experiencing development, but the expansion of quarries close to residential areas, environmental degradation, and losses to the budget. At the same time, state control mechanisms that should protect the interests of the community and the country are actually working to serve private interests.
