On 25 September 2026, UA.NEWS reported that three wastewater treatment design contracts awarded in 2025 by Lvivvodokanal, the Lviv municipal water utility, to the Kharkiv-based private enterprise Intechengineering, are now under journalistic scrutiny after investigators traced the contractor's ownership to a Russian company of the same name (UA.NEWS). The three contracts cover design and cost-estimate documentation for the reconstruction of the city's wastewater treatment facilities on Plastova Street and are valued at more than 8.2 million UAH in total (UA.NEWS).
Key takeaways
- Three design contracts worth over 8.2 million UAH were awarded to Intechengineering by Lvivvodokanal in 2025 (UA.NEWS).
- Owner Mykhaylo Tits holds 18.32% of the Ukrainian Ecopolymer and 18.2% of Russia's PP Ekopolymer, registered in Kaluga Region (UA.NEWS).
- Until December 2022, the largest Ecopolymer beneficiary, Yuriy Meshengisser, owned 99% of Karat 21 LLC, which controls 61.4% of the Russian firm (UA.NEWS).
- A new Ecopolymer Plant LLC, founded by Karat 21, was registered in Kaluga Region in April 2023 with 80 million rubles of authorised capital (UA.NEWS).
- None of the four Ukrainian co-owners is on US, EU, UK, UN or Ukrainian NSDC sanctions lists as of May 2026 (UA.NEWS).
What happened: contracts, ownership trail, and current status
The reconstruction target is the wastewater treatment complex on Plastova Street, which Lviv has been preparing to modernise for several years and which forms part of a larger programme expected to draw on international financial institutions and donors (UA.NEWS). Intechengineering had not previously taken part in public procurement before winning all three Lvivvodokanal awards in 2025, according to public registries cited in the investigation (UA.NEWS).
| Scope on Plastova Street | Contract value (UAH) |
|---|---|
| Reconstruction of aeration tanks No. 5–10 | 3,239,000 |
| Reconstruction of aeration tanks No. 1–4 | 2,270,000 |
| Mixing tanks No. 1–6 | 2,700,000 |
| Total | over 8,200,000 |
Journalists from the "Your City" project traced the link from Mykhaylo Tits, Intechengineering's owner and director, to Ukrainian R&D firm Ecopolymer, then to Russia's PP Ekopolymer in Kaluga Region, in which Tits held 18.2% as of May 2026 (UA.NEWS). Co-owners overlap at both ends: Valentina Shchetinina holds stakes in both the Ukrainian and Russian Ecopolymer entities, and Karat 21 LLC holds the controlling 61.4% in the Russian firm (UA.NEWS). "In particular, Yuriy Meshengisser, the largest beneficiary of the Ukrainian company 'Ecopolymer,' holds a Russian tax identification number issued in Moscow in September 2014," the investigation states (UA.NEWS). Meshengisser also remains a shareholder in the Moscow publishing house VST Publishing House, which publishes a specialised Russian water and wastewater journal (UA.NEWS).
The technology link runs deeper than equity. In 2015–2016, rights to at least four Ukrainian patents, including developments tied to automated control of aeration tanks and wastewater treatment, were transferred to the Russian Ecopolymer entity, the investigation found (UA.NEWS). A second Russian plant, Ecopolymer Plant LLC, was registered in April 2023 at the same Kaluga site, with Karat 21 as sole founder and the same director and headcount as the previous operation (UA.NEWS).
Although the procurement itself does not appear, on the public record, to breach Ukrainian law, the ownership trail is now part of an active information request: "The 'Your City' project has also submitted official inquiries to the Lviv City Council and 'Lvivvodokanal.' Journalists are seeking clarification regarding the procurement process and the selection of the company that was awarded the three design contracts," the report states (UA.NEWS).
Specification read
The reported scope is design documentation only, not construction. The combined 8.2 million UAH in 2025 design fees covers three asset groups on the Plastova Street site: aeration tanks No. 1–4 and 5–10, and mixing tanks No. 1–6, all of which are core biological-stage hardware. For a city of Lviv's size (general industry range, not from the sources), a municipal works of this class typically treats flow in the order of 200,000–300,000 m³/day and serves a population equivalent of 600,000–900,000, so any redesign of aeration and mixing capacity should be read as touching the heart of the activated-sludge train rather than headworks or tertiary polishing. The treatment train this kind of project sits inside is the conventional municipal sequence: screening and grit removal, primary clarification, biological treatment (here, the asset being redesigned is consistent with a conventional activated-sludge or, less commonly, SBR layout, given the separate aeration-tank and mixing-tank assets), and tertiary disinfection. A future build-out is also the natural point at which chemical dosing, polymer make-up, and sludge-handling upgrades are scoped, so readers scoping similar works should treat this as a pre-cursor design package rather than a stand-alone job. In practical terms, if your plant has separate aeration-tank and mixing-tank assets of similar vintage, is handling BOD in the 150–300 mg/L range (general industry range, not from the sources) and is preparing a donor-funded modernisation of biological capacity, then this is the stage at which ownership and sanctions screening of the design contractor becomes a procurement risk in its own right. Two reference points for utility engineers and procurement leads scoping adjacent upgrades are covered in municipal water and wastewater treatment equipment and in the related primer on advanced water purification total-ownership-cost reduction; for the donor-financed context, see small community wastewater system design considerations.
FAQ
What is the headline figure from the Lvivvodokanal awards?
The three 2025 design contracts to Intechengineering are worth more than 8.2 million UAH in total, with the largest single line at 3.239 million UAH for aeration tanks No. 5–10 (UA.NEWS).
Why is a design-only contract attracting scrutiny?
Because the contractor's owner also holds a stake in a Russian firm of the same name, and the cross-border ownership includes a co-owner with a Russian tax ID and a separate Russian plant registered in April 2023 (UA.NEWS).
Are any of the co-owners on a sanctions list?
No. As of May 2026, none of the four co-owners of the Ukrainian Ecopolymer group was on US, EU, UK, UN or NSDC sanctions lists, which the report links to the absence of automatic Prozorro blocks (UA.NEWS).
What is the next procedural step?
"Your City" has filed official inquiries with the Lviv City Council and Lvivvodokanal on the procurement process and contractor selection, and responses are pending (UA.NEWS).
