With war, cities and villages destroyed, thousands of people with disabilities, and frequent air raids only exacerbating tensions, the city of Kyiv is passing a budget that does not prioritize important issues such as developing barrier-free environments, creating shelters, and investing in critical infrastructure. At the same time, support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine also does not receive due attention.
The city received a classic peacetime budget. Budget for interchanges, paving stones and asphalt.
You can evaluate the emphasis and priorities yourself:
23.8 billion for the city’s transport industry. There are new junctions and roads: on the street. Degtyarevskaya and Bogatyrskaya, Brovarsky Avenue and Obolon (district). It is planned to continue the construction of the most expensive Podolsk-Voskresensky bridge in the history of mankind and the metro to Vinogradar, which has already become a city meme.
50 million UAH for the reconstruction of parks. Don’t be surprised: again Natalka and Orlyatko parks, as if there are no others in Kiev.
UAH 14.3 million for the city target program for tourism development
Funds for the Armed Forces of Ukraine - 763 million UAH - are included in the budget of the Department of Municipal Security, the Mayor added another 1 billion UAH by the Amendment. Important: there is no understanding of what exactly these funds will be used for. Is this amount adequate? No.
One may get the impression that Kyiv lives in a world separate from the country, when, leveling the demands of the time, the needs of the community and basic human dignity, those who have been “dividing the budget for years” have not understood that the enemy is not only a neighbor, but also corruption, which must be fought just as desperately.
They say bad habits die hard. The main bad habit of the authorities in Kyiv is to “appropriate” the taxes of the townspeople, based on their own vision and personal interests, which is completely inappropriate to the situation not only in the country, but also in the world.
And at this time, people are not able to find refuge in shelters, there are not enough of them, or the condition is unsatisfactory, Kiev residents are thrown out of public transport during an air raid raid, leaving 2 options: freeze on the street, or transfer to minibuses, which fall apart during movement, are closed people with disabilities at home, because they cannot move freely around the city.
Why don't those who supported this budget care how someone who has lost limbs in this terrible war will use public transport that is filled to capacity, due to subway accidents that are the result of a lack of adequate investment in operation and the promotion of aggressive development, get on a minibus, or simply cross the street, which gives one option - an underground passage. Why doesn’t the mayor care about the barrier-free situation in the city? The city budget does not solve the situation with honoring and burying fallen defenders and defenders, their rehabilitation and psychological support.
This is again a budget that representatives of the parliamentary corps are accustomed to dividing among themselves and who continue to be in an illusory reality, thinking that the war is somewhere far away and does not affect their interests in any way. Will the new interchange and road that destroys the Osokorki eco-park Kiev save Kyiv from the enemy? Is this what the taxpayers who form the budget really want?
Instead of protected areas, next year we can expect kilometers of roads and concrete jungles, among which each and everyone who supported this budget will live their carefree lives while someone freezes in a trench, at a rally in defense of the Osokorki eco-park, or standing in line for the old yellow minibus.
With the personal support of the mayor, because nothing happens in this city without his consent, the metropolitan authorities made the superficial shine of the city the cornerstone for themselves, voting for their reality to the accompaniment of air raid sirens.
The mayor and the majority of the Kyiv City Council chose not a general victory in the war, of which the city of Kyiv should become a part, but a personal victory in the elections and traditional enrichment.
What's next for us? Rallies under the walls of the Kiev City Council, which will gather more and more Kiev residents, my hard work, my colleagues and colleagues who, like me, do not support this shameful budget, are trying to change it during adjustments. And doubts, doubts from partners regarding the advisability of financial support for a country that its capital does not want to support.
Kyiv could have been an example for other cities of how to be part of a victory, but it became an example of what kind of budget should not be adopted during a war.
“Cities must live their own lives” - with this phrase Vladimir Prokopiv, head of the European Solidarity faction, explained the feasibility of such a budget. I don’t think the people of Kiev agree with this! Cities must live a life in which the main thing is victory, because without it there will be no cities!
