100 million for shipping and a shadow "back-office": how Lytvynov and Shevyakov are building a new scheme in the Pivdennyi port

100 million for shipping and a shadow "back-office": how Lytvynov and Shevyakov are building a new scheme in the Pivdennyi port

In the port «Pivdennyi», a configuration continues to form that is increasingly going beyond just managerial decisions and moving into the realm of the struggle for control over financial flows.

As writes journalist Iryna Hryb, according to available information, port director Artem Lytvynov has begun to distance himself from the agreements that were likely a condition of his appointment. This concerns, in particular, the story with the transfer of 100 million UAH to the Ukrainian Danube Shipping — the same «subsidy assistance» that has already been mentioned before.

According to interlocutors, these funds were considered part of a larger scheme to withdraw finances through a loss-making enterprise. It is associated with Vice Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba and the management vertical built by Andriy Kashuba.

However, according to available information, Lytvynov has effectively suspended this process. In the corridors, this is explained simply: against the backdrop of the weakening of Kuleba’s positions, the port director decided to review the balance of interests and not rush to transfer a significant financial resource.

Parallel to this, another telling change is taking place — distancing from the ministry. According to interlocutors, recently Lytvynov has practically stopped appearing in the relevant structures and has begun to build his own autonomous management configuration.

The key signal in this process was the appointment of Oleh Shevyakov as advisor — a figure well-known in the industry.

Shevyakov has been associated with informal processes in the maritime sector since 2024. His career began as an assistant to Mykhailo Poperechnyuk, who is considered an influential businessman and former candidate for people’s deputy. Later, he worked in structures related to aviation security, and subsequently his name appeared in stories around the state enterprise «Antonov».

In 2024, Shevyakov began to be directly linked to the formation of an informal «back-office» in the maritime industry, which, according to interlocutors, worked in the interests of Kuleba’s team. Formally, during this period, he held the position of deputy head of the USPA.

Topics of tenders, procurements, tariffs, and schemes in ports have repeatedly become the subject of publications. However, according to people in the system, the coordination of these processes often remained outside public attention — and Shevyakov’s surname regularly appears in such conversations.

After the appointment of Mykola Kravchuk as head of the USPA and his communications with Artem Lytvynov, the latter, according to sources, quickly fell out of the previous configuration. Effectively, he was asked to leave the system, and he left along with part of his team.

Now, having taken over the largest state port, Lytvynov, according to interlocutors, is beginning to recreate his own vertical, bringing back familiar cadres.

And the alliance of Lytvynov and Shevyakov in the industry is already being assessed as potentially explosive. In the corridors, they say that such a configuration could quickly turn the port «Pivdennyi» into a center of new high-profile criminal stories.

And this — is only part of the picture.

A separate block is already being prepared about the port’s tariff rates for certain companies, through which, according to interlocutors, additional informal incomes may be formed.

Continuation — ahead.