Kim described the abandoned «Iskra» as the main unfulfilled project of his term in office — no funding could be secured for it
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- Alisa MelikadamianContributing Editor, Reporter
In May, part of the façade of the abandoned «Iskra» cinema in Mykolaiv collapsed. Photo: NikVestiOver the past six years, the regional authorities have been unable to secure funding for the restoration of the derelict «Iskra» cinema building in Mykolaiv. Although the project was proposed to international partners, it did not receive any support.
Vitalii Kim announced this during his final press conference as head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, according to NikVesti.
According to him, he considers the reconstruction of the «Iskra» cinema to be one of the projects that has never been successfully implemented.
«We were unable to carry out our plans for the «Iskra». We are continuing to work on this, but we have not succeeded,» he said.
When asked by a journalist from NikVesti why the fate of the building had not been resolved over the years, Vitalii Kim explained that the main obstacle was the high cost of the renovation.
«The amount of funding required to rebuild «Iskra» runs into hundreds of millions of hryvnias. We have other priorities where that money needs to be channelled: towards reconstruction, shelters and social services,» he noted.
According to the official, the regional authorities tried to secure international funding for the project, but were unable to find a suitable support programme.
«We were unable to secure external funding for this project. We proposed this project to international partners. In general, our approach was as follows: we proposed around 100 projects, of which they selected approximately 40 in line with their own priorities and funding programmes. No funding programme in this area was available for «Iskra»,» explained Vitalii Kim.
At the same time, he expressed the hope that, following the change in the regional administration’s leadership, the project would still have a chance of being implemented.
«I think the new head of the Regional State Administration will put forward some ideas, and we’ll be able to implement this with our international partners. I hope that ‘Iskra’ will find a suitable programme and receive funding,» he said.
As a reminder, in May 2026, NikVesti reported on how the building of the former «Iskra» cinema in Mykolaiv continues to fall into disrepair. Recently, part of the external canopy running along the building’s facade collapsed.
Read the NikVesti article «Iskra has faded away. What do the authorities plan to do with the abandoned cinema building in Mykolaiv?».
The «Iskra» cinema in Mykolaiv
The «Iskra» was transferred from the city’s ownership to the Mykolaiv Regional Philharmonic Society in 2012. The authorities at the time promised that within a few years they would restore the cinema for the needs of the Philharmonic, which had been managing the property’s operational matters for years, but to this day «Iskra» has still not become a ‘home’ for musicians.
In 2019, Mayor Oleksandra Sienkevych stated that Mykolaiv would transfer ‘Iskra’ to municipal ownership if the region renovated the building.
Some councillors, such as Ihor Diatlov, expressed a desire to purchase the property, which at the time the chair of the Mykolaiv Regional Council, Viktoriia Moskalenko, was offering to sell for just 197,000 hryvnias. Diatlov offered 400,000 hryvnias for the property, with a view to transferring it to municipal ownership and turning it into a leisure centre.
Tahir Sadridinov was also prepared to invest his own funds; he proposed either granting the building under concession or creating a comprehensive development programme to restore «Iskra» as part of the redevelopment of Lisky Park. However, none of these options was implemented.
In May 2021, Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, raised the issue of the cinema and announced the possibility of transferring the property to Mykolaiv, but only after it had been renovated using state funds. Following this, the mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, announced plans to build a new two-storey Administrative Services Centre on the site of the former cinema. This initiative could be funded by a USAID grant.
A few months before the war began, there were plans to allocate 700,000 hryvnias from the regional budget for the security of the former «Iskra» cinema building in the Zavodskyi district of Mykolaiv.
