Klitschko Calls on Kyiv District Heads to Expand the Network of Shelters

Due to the significant intensification of Russian shelling of Kyiv, expanding the network of shelters and properly equipping them must become an urgent priority for district state administrations. The capital’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reminded district leaders of their personal responsibility for ensuring the safety of residents.

“Today, at a meeting of the Kyiv City State Administration, I instructed the heads of the capital’s districts to prioritize the use of funds for equipping shelters. And not to sabotage this effort. Currently, the urgent task for district heads—who are the administrators of funds allocated by the city—is to increase the number of shelters and ensure they are properly equipped. District heads must respond promptly to all requests and address any shortcomings. Because, even though they were appointed by the President, they bear personal responsibility to the residents,” stated Vitali Klitschko.

According to the mayor, Kyiv currently has nearly 4,400 shelters of various types and forms of ownership. Between 2022 and 2026, the city allocated approximately 7 billion hryvnias for the construction, repair, and equipping of shelters.

At the same time, district state administrations have not utilized all of the allocated funds. A separate issue remains the installation of mobile shelters, which can provide protection for people in areas where there are no accessible stationary shelters.

“We discussed the issue of installing mobile shelters separately. Last year, the districts received funding for this but did not install the shelters, and the funds were returned to the city budget. And this year, they haven’t even requested funds for installing mobile shelters!” Klitschko noted.

According to the mayor, due to the inaction of the district administrations, the city had to independently seek opportunities to install mobile shelters.

“In particular, the first batch—14 mobile shelters—will be installed in the near future by ‘Kyivpastrans’ at public transportation stops. In addition, I appealed to the business community to help the city. And the first shelter, funded by philanthropists, was installed yesterday on Beresteisky Avenue, next to the “Ivan Bagryany Park” stop, which is served by several trolleybus routes,” Vitali Klitschko reported.

The mayor called on district leaders not to shirk their responsibilities in expanding the network of mobile shelters and to ensure that funds are used for their intended purpose.

“I will regard any disregard of this issue as sabotage! And I will publicly name the specific ‘officials’ responsible to Kyiv residents and residents of districts where leaders fail to work on installing shelters,” Klitschko emphasized.

The issue of protecting the population remains particularly urgent amid intensifying Russian attacks on the capital.

Earlier, Alexander Kharchenko, director of the Center for Energy Research, stated that over the past month and a half, the intensity of Russian military strikes on Kyiv’s energy facilities has quadrupled.

Last fall, the government established legal requirements for mobile shelters. At that time, Vitali Klitschko announced that Kyiv was allocating funds to install 500 such shelters. However, the district administrations, which are responsible for managing these funds, were unable to utilize them.

Currently, city authorities plan to install the first 14 mobile shelters at public transportation stops, and Vitali Klitschko is demanding that district leaders step up efforts to expand the network of shelters.

He made this statement during a meeting of the Kyiv City State Administration.

On Beresteisky Avenue in Kyiv, the first mobile shelter is being set up near a public transportation stop. It is intended to provide passengers with a place to take shelter during an air raid alert.

The metro line to Vynogradar will not open until at least 2027.

As a reminder, Kyiv City Council member Kozak has proposed making the metro free until the end of martial law.

Additionally, the head of a contracting company embezzled 2.7 million hryvnias during metro repairs.