«This is the first time the situation is so critical»: Mykolaiv's budget balance for 2025 is ₴300 million

Mykolaiv's budget balances by the end of the year will amount to about 300 million hryvnias, which is the lowest figure in recent years.

This was reported by Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych during a meeting of the Standing Committee on Economic and Investment Policy, according to NikVesti.

As you know, the Mykolaiv City Council plans to appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with a request to provide an additional subsidy from the state budget. According to the city's estimates, its own budget revenues for 2026 are only 82.5% of the real need, and the financial resource deficit exceeds 1 billion 140 million hryvnias.

«According to the forecast, this year's balances will be up to 300 million hryvnias, taking into account the last few days when payments are still being received, including today. That is, as I said, we are recording a drop in our balances from 1.2 billion hryvnias to 300 million hryvnias starting in 2022. In fact, this is the first time the situation has been so critical,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

All budget payments in Mykolaiv suspended due to lack of funds for salaries and utility bills: what is known

As a reminder, on 19 December 2024, the deputies of the Mykolaiv City Council approved the city budget for 2025. The total budget envisaged revenues of ₴5.414 billion and expenditures of ₴5.285 billion.

At that time, salary expenses for employees of executive bodies and budgetary institutions accounted for 38% of the total budget of Mykolaiv in 2025. The main source of budget revenues is income taxes paid by the residents of Mykolaiv.

In September 2025, Fedir Panchenko, a member of the Mykolaiv City Council and chairman of the planning and budget commission, warned of a shortage of funds in the city's budget for mandatory payments by the end of the year. At the time, he announced a figure of ₴200 million.

He also spoke about this at a meeting of the City Council's budget committee on the same day when considering the decision to reallocate the city's budget. Back then, he said that it was necessary to look for money for protected items for November and December.

Subsequently, in early November, the main spending units and municipal enterprises of Mykolaiv were instructed to suspend all payments for expenditures that did not relate to protected items, namely public sector salaries and utility bills.

At the time, it was reported that the reason for this was the lack of budget funds to cover the protected budget items until the end of the year. The problem had been known for a long time, as the annual budget had not included funds for mandatory payments by the end of the year. The mayor's office hoped that budget overruns and savings during the year would help find the funds. However, this did not happen.

Later, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said that the city budget was looking for ₴60 million for salaries and utilities.

NikVesti analysed the proposed changes to the distribution of expenditures in Mykolaiv's budget and calculated that ₴7.2 million would be allocated for salaries and utility bills (in the budget, this is an expenditure item «Management and administration in the relevant area») for the city's budget managers, rather than the ₴60 million previously mentioned by the mayor.

Recently, Andrii Yantar, a member of the Mykolaiv City Council, proposed to equalise the salaries of employees of the city's departments and utilities with the average salary in Mykolaiv in 2025.

According to him, it is worth establishing «a unified approach to calculating salaries». In addition, the maximum salary should not exceed this level.

It is worth noting that in the 2026 budget of Mykolaiv, ₴4.5 million is to be allocated for the Development Agency, of which about ₴3.4 million is to be spent on salaries and accruals.

Subsequently, four members of the Mykolaiv City Council appealed to Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych to intervene in the situation around the preparation of the Mykolaiv budget for 2026. In their opinion, the procedure for drafting and reviewing the city's main financial document was violated.

The document states that there are discrepancies between the reports of the main spending units and utilities on protected and necessary expenditures for 2026 and the draft decision «On the Budget of the Mykolaiv City Territorial Community for 2026» in terms of indicators and funding.