On September 17, 2026, the Autostrada corporate group announced a suspension of work at all of its sites in Ukraine. This was stated in a Facebook post by the company's founder and ultimate beneficial owner, Maksym Shkil, which was cited by RBC-Ukraine and a number of other media outlets. As the reason for the halt, the head of the group cited the abrupt cessation of state funding for all capital expenditures.
Reason for the halt: freeze on capital expenditures
According to Shkil, on September 17 the state, without prior warning, stopped funding all capital expenditures. "In this connection, Autostrada is forced to halt work at all of its sites," the group's director stated. In the available statements, the company did not disclose the list of specific sites where work has been suspended, nor the timeframe for its possible resumption.
Impact on salaries, suppliers, and debt servicing
Shkil emphasized that the funding halt has a cascading effect: it affects the payment of wages to employees, settlements with suppliers, and the servicing of the company's credit obligations. For a contractor whose cash flow is tied to state payments, a sudden freeze on capital expenditures can quickly turn into a liquidity problem even for a major market player.
Who is Autostrada and its role in the Great Construction
The legal entity LLC "GK Autostrada" was registered in 2015; its main line of business per the classification code is the construction of roads and highways. The group operates in the field of infrastructure construction: road, bridge, industrial, and underground construction, as well as design. The company was one of the key and largest contractors of the national project "Velike Budivnytstvo" (Great Construction), which launched in 2020, and participated in the construction and repair of roads and bridges in Ukraine.
Financial context and previous precedents
According to media reports, in the first half of 2026 Autostrada earned net revenue of 1.92 billion hryvnias and net profit of 2.4 million hryvnias. Earlier, in 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers had already halted funding for Autostrada's projects to build shelters for energy facilities. The group was also active in the defense sector: it transferred equipment to the Armed Forces of Ukraine worth approximately 50 million hryvnias.
What is confirmed and what remains the company's claim
The fact of the work suspension is reported by several independent media outlets (RBC-Ukraine, novosti.ua, zn.ua, unn.ua), all of which cite the founder's statement. However, the reason itself — the state's freeze on capital expenditures on September 17 — is presented in the reviewed materials as the company's position; there is no direct public confirmation or refutation from the state or the relevant authority in the provided sources. The financial figures for the first half of 2026 are also attributed to "media data" rather than to an audited company report in the text of the original message.
