The total debt for government-funded projects exceeds 8 billion UAH, and by the end of the year, it may decrease by 30%, said Nikolai Timofeev, the general director of LLC "Avtomagistral-Pivden," in an exclusive interview with the "Interfax-Ukraine" agency.
"The total debt for government-funded projects stands at over 8 billion UAH. We understand that the state objectively lacks the financial resources to settle with us immediately. To meet the tasks set by the government, we collaborated with financial institutions to replenish our working capital. We asked our material suppliers, considering our long-standing partnership, to grant us a deferment. We utilized banking guarantees and letters of credit to swiftly obtain materials from abroad. This year, the debt is gradually decreasing, and by the end of the year, the government promises to cover about 30% of the debt," Timofeev reported.
During the war, the company began engaging not only in road construction. A new direction emerged focusing on the protection of energy facilities, the construction of fortifications, and hydraulic engineering structures.
"If we calculate government orders across the entire construction sector, excluding industrial and residential construction, we account for approximately 15%," Timofeev noted.
Among the significant infrastructure projects implemented by the company during the war, he mentioned the restoration of bridges in the liberated territories – in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Mykolaiv regions. The largest project is a 600-meter bridge near Chernihiv on the M01 highway "Kyiv-Chernihiv." The company has also restored strategic bridges near Kyiv – in Stoyanka on the "Kyiv-Chop" road and on the "Kyiv-Kharkiv" road over the Trubizh River. The most significant project is the main water pipeline from the Southern reservoir to the city of Kryvyi Rih.
The company joined energy protection projects starting in 2022.
"In the projects of first and second level protection for which we were responsible, the company fulfilled the contract. The second level of energy protection is fully completed. I clarify, it is completed at our facilities. However, the second level is designed to protect against drones and missile debris. Only third-level facilities can protect against direct hits from cruise or ballistic missiles. It is physically impossible to build them over existing energy facilities. This requires entirely new construction: first, robust reinforced concrete protective structures are built, and then the station equipment is installed beneath them. This is an immense undertaking that won't be completed in a month or even a year. It demands substantial investments. But there is no other way to secure significant energy capacities. We continue to construct several third-level protection facilities, even despite the halt in funding. We sincerely hope that the government will fulfill its obligations," Timofeev stated.
The company is executing fortification projects in the Odesa, Sumy, and Kherson regions, as well as along the border with the Donetsk region.
"We are doing everything within our power and even more. Defense lines are often needed 'yesterday.' To avoid waiting for the completion of bureaucratic procedures from the customer, this summer we invested our own 200 million UAH in the production of concrete structures for military support points (VOPs). After all, they cannot be manufactured and installed in a week. From a business perspective, this is a risk, but we are willing to take it because we understand that lost time equates to lost lives of soldiers and lost territories," Timofeev emphasized.