Each massive shelling causes losses to Kyiv of up to UAH 2 billion

Kyiv's preparations for the new heating season are complicated not only by the consequences of Russian shelling, but also by a lack of state support. According to city authorities, each massive attack causes losses to the capital in the amount of 1 to 2 billion UAH, while the city budget is already working at the limit of its capabilities.

This was stated on the air of the Apostrophe TV channel by Kyiv City Council deputy from the European Solidarity faction, Lyudmila Kovalevska.

According to her, the main financial burden of eliminating the consequences of Russian attacks falls on Kyiv. If state compensation does not cover the costs of housing restoration, the city finances the work with its own funds.

“I want to tell you that on average, one such shelling costs Kyiv, the city of Kyiv, the budget of the city of Kyiv an average of one billion to two billion hryvnias. It depends on the density of the shelling, on the damage caused. For example, there are already accurate calculations of four shellings - this is 1 billion 250 million hryvnias of damage,” Kovalevska noted.

She emphasized that although Kyiv's budget is about UAH 100 billion, only UAH 20 billion of it is a development budget. The rest of the funds are directed to protected expenditure items - payment of salaries, compensations, financing of education, medicine and other mandatory needs.

“As of now, imagine, everyone is saying that the budget of the city of Kyiv is very large, that the people of Kyiv will cope with everything themselves, will cope. Indeed, our budget of the city of Kyiv is 100 billion UAH. Of these, 80 billion are protected so-called articles. That is, these are salaries, these are travel compensation, these are a lot of different things that must be paid in any case. These are teachers' salaries and so on. And the development budget is 20 billion, it was before,” the deputy emphasized.

According to Kovalevska, due to the large-scale destruction, preparations for winter, and the need to restore energy infrastructure, the city is in dire need of state assistance. At the same time, she claims that despite repeated appeals by the Kyiv City Council to the government, the capital has not yet received such support.

"We have made more than one appeal to state institutions, to the Cabinet of Ministers, that we need help with energy sustainability, that we need help with reconstruction, but as of now there is no help," she said.

According to the deputy, the city regularly allocates funds for repairs, but there is a lack of construction crews and workers who could promptly perform the necessary work.

In her opinion, Kyiv needs not only additional funding, but also legislative changes that would allow reserving workers involved in the restoration of critical infrastructure.

She reported that about UAH 600 million remained in the city budget reserve fund, while the costs of eliminating the consequences of the shelling significantly exceed this amount.

Kovalevska also noted that an additional problem was the return of UAH 1,2 billion, which the city had previously transferred to the State Agency for Reconstruction for the purchase of backup generation equipment. The agency did not use these funds for three months and returned them to the Kyiv budget.

According to her, a significant amount of work has already been done to prepare for winter: generators are being purchased and installed, critical infrastructure facilities are being repaired, and loans have been attracted from international financial institutions. At the same time, she believes that the level of readiness of the capital is currently only 20–30%.

“I would estimate the preparation as of now at 20–30%. Will this be enough for us to survive? I am absolutely not sure. I hope so, because the city structures are working as hard as possible, but the government's support is actually critically needed,” the deputy concluded.

“Apostrophe” reported that on July 20, work was completed in the Kyiv region to extinguish a large-scale fire that broke out as a result of a Russian attack on the night of July 19. The fire engulfed two warehouses with a total area of ​​about 100 thousand square meters.

On the night of Sunday, July 19, as a result of another Russian attack on Kyiv, the warehouse of the Knyholav publishing house was destroyed.

Kyiv has appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers with a demand to return the funds withdrawn from the state budget to prepare the capital for winter and protect the population. The total need for the implementation of the energy sustainability plan is almost UAH 40 billion.