Sienkevych: Denmark will build a high-rise building in Mykolaiv for state employees: «The apartments will forever remain the property of the city»

Mykolaiv City Council deputies supported the construction of a kindergarten and a multi-story building in the Pivnichnyi microdistrict. The Department of Housing and Communal Services can proceed to the production of project documentation.

On Thursday, August 29, during the session, the deputy director of the Department of Housing and Communal Affairs of the Mykolaiv City Council, Ihor Nabatov, announced that negotiations regarding the construction of a kindergarten and a high-rise building had been ongoing since February 2024.

The Danish fund is ready to finance the works and project documentation. The customer of the works was determined by the Housing and Housing Department.

The mayor of Mykolaiv Oleksandr Sienkevych added that the new high-rise building will become a social housing fund. Social workers, teachers and doctors will be able to rent these apartments. The apartments will also house employees of communal enterprises, whose salaries do not cover the rent of expensive housing.

«The apartments will not be transferred to anyone, they will forever remain the property of the community. This will be social housing, people will be able to rent housing and pay money to the budget, but the amount will be determined by the social. In the future, the Office of Communal Property will receive money for the use of apartments,» he said.

Deputies supported the issue. They voted unanimously for the draft decision.

We will remind that Sienkevych once again in 7 years declared his desire to build a kindergarten in Pivnichnyi: «We are conducting a dialogue with Denmark.» The idea of building this kindergarten in the Pivnichnyi district arose back in 2013, but since then all the funds allocated from the budget of Mykolaiv for this purpose were not used and the work never started.

In 2017, funds were allocated from the budget for the design of the kindergarten, construction work was planned to be completed by 2019, but construction never began. The new kindergarten in the Pivnichnyi district was one of the pre-election promises of Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych in 2020, construction work was announced for 2021, but it did not happen.

According to the information previously announced by the mayor of Mykolaiv Oleksandr Sienkevych, the facility was supposed to have 270 seats and was built using all innovative technologies.

In May 2017, it was reported that 3 million hryvnias were planned to be allocated for the construction of a kindergarten on Promeneva Street, including for design work and expertise. Then the deputy of the city council, Oleksii Lepishev, said that if construction is not started now, it will be too late to build it by winter. However, neither in 2017 nor in 2018 was the kindergarten built.

Only in August 2021, the city council announced that by 2024 they plan to complete 50% of the work on the construction of the kindergarten, having spent 53.3 million hryvnias over four years. However, with the beginning of the Great War, this idea became irrelevant and was returned to consideration only in 2023.

We will remind that in March 2023, the Department of Education of the Mykolaiv City Council reported that Denmark was ready to finance the restoration of the facade of the damaged Lyceum named after Mykola Arkas. Later, in September of the same year, Ukrainian architects presented to the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Denmark, Ole Egberg Mikkelsen, options for the recovery and restoration of the lyceum.

As of August 2024, the educational institution is still awaiting reconstruction. In April of this year, donors were engaged in adjusting the project. Reconstruction was to begin in June. The facade of the building was promised to be completed by November this year.

Denmark's cooperation with Mykolaiv

In March 2022, the president of Ukraine, speaking in front of the Danish parliament, called on the country to take «chiefship» over Mykolaiv after the end of a full-scale war.

At the end of August 2022, the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, and the Minister of International Development of Denmark, Flemming Møller Mortensen, signed a memorandum of cooperation. The memorandum envisages joint work on the formation of reconstruction projects and the involvement of investors from different countries in the restoration of Mykolaiv.

In January 2023, a meeting of representatives of Denmark and Ukraine took place in Mykolaiv regarding the planning of further restoration of the city. And in July, the Minister of the Kingdom of Denmark announced a new aid package for Mykolaiv Oblast.

In September, after a meeting with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the opening of the office of the Danish Embassy in Ukraine in Mykolaiv.

In early November 2023, Denmark announced a new large-scale aid package for Ukraine for 40.2 million euros. The main emphasis in the aid package is on Mykolaiv and the Mykolaiv region.

In general, about 60% of the aid that Denmark sends to Ukraine goes to Mykolaiv and the Mykolaiv region, said the ambassador of the Kingdom of Denmark to Ukraine Ole Egberg Mikkelsen. He also stated his vision of the post-war reconstruction of Mykolaiv with friendly conditions for pedestrians and bicycle infrastructure.

While in Mykolaiv, the ambassador explained that after the end of the full-scale war, Denmark would help Mykolaiv to restore and modernize its shipbuilding capacity.

In particular, Denmark will rebuild the Lyceum named after Mykola Arkas while preserving its authentic appearance. As of September 2023, Ukrainian architects presented Ole Egberg Mikkelsen with reconstruction options.

The ambassador also supported the idea of creating a Danish quarter or park in Mykolaiv, but today this issue remains at the idea stage.

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Denmark has provided 118 million dollars in aid to the Mykolaiv region. And in 2024, it became known that the government of the Kingdom of Denmark will allocate 17.2 million dollars for the reconstruction of educational institutions in the Mykolaiv region, which were destroyed as a result of hostilities.