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The Kyiv National Police continues to investigate the causes of the flooding of a section of the Obolonsko-Teremkivska metro line, which occurred in December 2023.
Recently, law enforcement officials officially reported suspicions to two officials of the Kyiv Metropolitan Municipal Enterprise, who, according to investigators, committed negligence in their work, which is why this emergency situation occurred. Among them is the chief engineer of this enterprise, Viktor Vyhovsky (on the left in the collage), who, after the dismissal of the odious Viktor Braginsky (on the right in the collage), is acting as the head of the underground. Investigators believe that Vyhovsky and his other colleague-suspect failed to carry out all the measures for the maintenance of underground facilities stipulated by their job descriptions, and as a result, the Kyiv Metropolitan and the Kyivpasstrans Municipal Enterprise suffered damages in the amount of 164.4 million hryvnia. We are talking about the funds that the underground did not receive due to the closure of 6 stations, and about the expenses spent on the operation of the “duplicate” bus and trolleybus routes. It is noteworthy that the city authorities deny all accusations and continue to insist that this incident occurred because of “predecessors” who built the metro incorrectly.
As it became known, law enforcement officers are investigating the facts of possible crimes committed by officials of the Kyiv Metropolitan Municipal Enterprise, which led to the depressurization of the capital’s underground tunnel in December 2023.
The relevant investigation is being carried out within the framework of criminal case No. 12023100000001219 of October 21, 2023, which was opened by the Podolsk Department of the National Police of Kyiv - that is, even before the aforementioned incident occurred.
At the end of last month, on July 23, law enforcement officers reported suspicion to the chief engineer of the Kyiv Metropolitan Municipal Enterprise Viktor Vyhovsky. He is officially charged with committing a crime under Part 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - official negligence that resulted in grave consequences. Subsequently, on July 25, the Podolsk District Court, at the request of investigators, chose a preventive measure for him in the form of round-the-clock house arrest for a period until September 23, 2024, with wearing a “bracelet” (electronic means of control).
During the same period, the head of the track, tunnel structures and buildings service of the Kyiv Metro Municipal Enterprise was also suspected of this case under the same article (there is no information in open sources about when exactly the suspicion was handed over and what the name and surname of this official are, – media). On July 25, he was also placed under 24-hour house arrest for the same period. In addition, on July 29, the same court, at the request of law enforcement officers, seized the property of this official – a 2019 Kia Sportage and a 1976 motorboat.
What are the suspects charged with?
According to the investigation, it was because of Viktor Vyhovsky and the head of the track, tunnel structures and buildings service that a man-made emergency occurred in the capital’s "underground" on December 8, 2023. We are talking about water getting into the tunnel on the section between the metro stations "Demiivska" - "Lybidska" (along the 1st track, on the section within PK73 - PK75 of the Obolonsko-Teremkovskaya line). Law enforcement officers believe that the cause of this accident was the formation of stalactites, washing out and damage to the integrity of the waterproofing of the metro tunnel over a long period of time, corrosion of the reinforcement of the precast concrete frame elements and the gradual destruction of individual elements of the tunnel structure.
As a result, on the same day, December 8, the standing commission on technogenic and ecological safety and emergency situations of Kyiv made a decision to stop the movement of electric trains on the section between the stations "Lybidska" - "Teremki". It was about 6 stations at once, which the capital’s authorities closed the next day - December 9.
According to law enforcement officers, due to the official negligence of Viktor Vyhovsky and his "colleague", the territorial community of Kyiv, represented by the Kyiv Metro and Kyivpastrans municipal enterprises, suffered damages totaling UAH 164.4 million - this amount is confirmed by the results of the forensic economic examination conducted as part of this investigation. Thus, we are talking about the fact that only for the period from December 8, 2023 to March 19, 2024, the Kyiv Metro, due to the closure and partial functioning of the Demeevska, Holosiivska, Vasilkivska, Vystavochny Tsentr, Ipprodrom and Teremki metro stations, lost income in the amount of UAH 25.9 million. In turn, the losses of Kyivpastrans are related to the fact that this enterprise had to spend funds in the amount of 138.5 million hryvnias during the same period on the operation of bus and trolleybus routes that duplicate the routes of the closed stations of the Obolonsko-Teremkovskaya line.
Viktor Vyhovskyi was in the sight of law enforcement officers for a reason. According to investigators, it was he, according to the requirements of the job description of the chief engineer of the Kyiv Metropolitan Municipal Enterprise and the Rules for the Technical Operation of Ukrainian Metropolitans, who was supposed to formulate plans for programs for the technical development of the enterprise, implement progressive technologies (including to improve the existing level of labor protection and safety at the enterprise), organize high-quality and highly effective engineering support for the metro, implement measures to ensure the long-term service of artificial structures and prevent their malfunctions, implement measures to organize inspection of tunnels, etc. However, as the National Police established, none of this was done.
In turn, according to the investigation, the head of the track, tunnel structures and buildings service, contrary to the requirements of his job description, did not fully organize the inspection of the technical condition of the subway buildings and structures by the testing and inspection station.
The need to “isolate” Viktor Vyhovsky from the “Kyiv Metro”, that is, to choose a preventive measure in the form of house arrest, was explained by the National Police by the fact that this person is currently simultaneously performing the duties of the head of this municipal enterprise, and therefore can exert illegal influence both on those metro workers who have already been questioned by law enforcement officers as witnesses in this case, and on those who have not yet been questioned. This means, among other things, that he can “give appropriate instructions, appoint to positions and dismiss from positions, assign bonuses to employees or deprive them of them”. In addition, the investigation believes that there is a risk of “the suspect committing other criminal offenses, including official ones, since the crime incriminated to Viktor Vyhovsky is inextricably linked with his official duties and powers”.
In turn, the law enforcement officers justified the seizure of his “colleague’s” vehicles by the fact that this official may attempt to alienate his property. And this, they say, cannot be allowed, because if he is found guilty of the incriminated crime, the law enforcement officers must file a civil claim for damages, and the vehicles can be used to cover the aforementioned losses.
Background and context
Let us recall that another investigation into the incident was opened on the same day as the accident, December 8. Its investigation into the fact of committing a crime under the same Part 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine was carried out by the Metropolitan Police Department of the Kyiv National Police. On December 13, 2023, investigators conducted the first searches at the Kyiv Metropolitan public utility company as part of this case, during which a number of documents were seized (including job descriptions of the company’s management). However, this investigation seems to have died down for some reason - the last court ruling on it is dated March 14, 2024. Law enforcement officials did not disclose any specific details about this case – they only noted that as a result of the official negligence of “unidentified persons of the Kyiv Metro” municipal enterprise, the tunnel became depressurized, cracks appeared on its walls, and water appeared on the tracks, which led to the closure of 6 stations.
At the same time, the capital’s authorities denied their involvement in this accident from the very first day. In the Kyiv Metropolitan Municipal Enterprise, the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) and among the Kyiv City Council deputies close to Vitali Klitschko, there were different versions regarding the causes of this incident. Thus, possible violations of the conditions for the construction of the tunnel on this section of the metro by the general contractor, and the "excessive" activity of the Lybid River flowing in this area, and difficult geological conditions and swimmers, and even the previous government were mentioned. They say that during the "Yanukovych-Azarov" era, the city authorities, in pursuit of quick results in the construction of tunnels, did not have time to make waterproofing on this section of the metro. At the same time, the city authorities promised that it would take about six months (eight have already passed, - media) to resume traffic on the aforementioned metro line - until all the necessary surveys, repair work, etc. are completed.
In turn, a number of experts pointed out that one of the main reasons for this situation could be the uncontrolled development of the capital. In particular, the architect and well-known urban development expert Viktor Gleb expressed confidence that the construction of the Ocean Plaza shopping center on Lybidska Square had negative consequences for the subway at one time, in the place of which there was a shaft of the construction of a metro tunnel, filled with thousands of “cubes” of hot water from a broken heating main. At the same time, according to him, the current leak of the tunnel is clearly caused by the construction of the Riverdale residential complex on the section between the Lybidska and Demeevska metro stations – a project of the Perfect Group developer from the orbit of the people’s deputy Dmitry Isaenko (elected from the now banned Opposition Platform - For Life).
In order to establish the “true cause” of this accident, on December 14, 2023, the Kyiv City Council even created a special temporary control commission (TCC), but as of today, this body has still not reported on its work.
At the same time, on the day of the presentation of the above-mentioned suspicions to the officials of the Kyiv Metropolitan Municipal Enterprise, the city authorities once again began to “whitewash their reputation” and, according to their usual tradition, called the actions of law enforcement “political pressure”. Thus, the Kyiv City State Administration indicated that the flooding was associated with poor-quality design solutions and poor-quality construction of the Demeevska-Lybidska tunnel, which is confirmed by expert reports and research by scientists. The mayor’s office also emphasized that “all necessary routine maintenance and operation of the inter-transit tunnel were carried out in full.”
In response to this, the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office noted that "based on the results of the commission’s construction and technical examination, it was concluded that the technical reason for the destruction of the metro tunnel was its improper operation." In addition, law enforcement officials noted that during the examination of the quality of the tunnel’s construction, no violations or deviations that could have led to the tunnel’s depressurization were found.
The prosecutor’s office also reported that law enforcement officers established that measures to eliminate water ingress into the tunnel were carried out between March 2011 and December 2023 without involving specialists from research institutes, metro construction, design and other organizations or individual specialists who would have established the causes of the damage and given recommendations for their elimination.
At the same time, the prosecutors emphasized that they did not receive from officials of the Kyiv Metropolitan Municipal Enterprise the results of examinations or other documents on which their statements about poor-quality design solutions during the construction of the tunnel between the metro stations are based, and deviations from design solutions were identified during the construction of the tunnel, which allegedly led to the flooding.
The verbal battles between city authorities and law enforcement officers did not end there. Already on July 25, after the selection of a preventive measure for Viktor Vyhovsky, the Kyiv City State Administration stated that his arrest complicates the process of managing the capital’s subway during the final stage of restoring the section between the Demeevska and Lybidska stations. At the same time, the metro emphasized that, "despite all the obstacles and pressure, repair work in the tunnel between the aforementioned stations continues and will continue in order to open traffic there before the beginning of autumn."
Subway scandals
As the media have repeatedly reported, the activities of officials of the Kyiv Metropolitan Municipal Enterprise regularly raise questions among law enforcement agencies.
For example, the first deputy head of this enterprise, Valeriy Gavrilenko, is currently under investigation for official negligence that resulted in grave consequences. According to law enforcement officials, it was because of him that the capital’s underground overpaid 421.8 thousand euros (13.1 million hryvnia) in 2014 for the purchase of metro trains from the Russian OJSC Metrovagonmash. These funds, provided under loan agreements with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), were effectively lost, since the Russians violated the terms of the 2011 contract regarding delivery dates. Recently, the court chose a preventive measure for the suspect in the form of a personal obligation, but refused to remove him from his position.
Interestingly, similar violations were previously also incriminated to the chief accountant of the Kyiv Metro, Lyudmila Panasyuk. In 2020, the servants of Themis closed the case against her due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
In addition, since 2021, law enforcement officers have been investigating the facts of possible misappropriation of budget funds during the construction of the first stage of the metro in the Vynohradar residential complex. The National Police has preliminarily established that about 241 million hryvnias received by the general contractor of these works (JSC Kyivmetrobud) were transferred along a “chain” to companies with signs of fictitiousness, and then cashed out and divided between the participants of the “scheme”.
According to investigators, officials of the Kyiv Metro Municipal Enterprise could also have reaped such an undue benefit. At the same time, as investigators found out, someone had previously helped the beneficiaries lobby an important decision in the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which allowed the general contractor to receive a larger advance than was stipulated by the relevant contract. It is noteworthy that the latter fact was studied by the SBU within the framework of another criminal case, but law enforcement officers were unable or unwilling to complete this investigation.
And in the spring of 2024, the then head of the Kyiv Metropolitan Municipal Enterprise Viktor Braginsky became the hero of another investigation – a journalistic one. Then the Bihus.Info media, based on the results of an analysis of this official’s declarations and data on his family’s property, reported that his retired mother was buying expensive apartments, his sister was buying land, his ex-wife was building a dacha in Kozin, and individuals associated with the former head of the capital’s metro were receiving contracts from the metro itself. In total, journalists discovered that Braginsky had undeclared property worth 52 million hryvnias.
On March 14, a few hours after the release of this investigation, Vitali Klitschko announced that he would remove Viktor Braginsky from his duties as the director of the capital’s metro. The next day, March 15, it became known that the head of the Kyiv Metropolitan enterprise had written a letter of resignation. At the same time, the Kyiv City State Administration emphasized that the duties of the head of this enterprise would be temporarily performed by the chief engineer of the capital’s metro, Viktor Vyhovsky.
The latter has held the said post since January 1, 2020. Before that, Viktor Vyhovskyi was an adviser to the head of the metro on technical issues and deputy chief engineer of this utility. In turn, the aforementioned Viktor Braginskyi, who was also a deputy of the current IX convocation of the Kyiv City Council (UDAR faction), headed the Kyiv Metro utility since July 17, 2014. This enterprise is subordinate to the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration, which has been headed by Ruslan Kandybor since September 1, 2021. The activities of this structure have been personally controlled by the mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitschko, since November 9, 2021.