Work on the reconstruction of Gymnasium №2 in Mykolaiv, on which nearly ₴100 million has already been spent, has been halted
-
- Yuliia BoichenkoReporter
Restoration work on the historic facade of Gymnasium №2 in Mykolaiv, 2024, photo by NikVestiIn Mykolaiv, the reconstruction of Gymnasium №2, which was damaged by shelling, has been halted because there were no funds in the 2026 state budget to complete the work.
The tender for the work has now been cancelled, NikVesti reports, citing data from the Prozorro public procurement system.
«Due to cuts in expenditure on the procurement of works, a decision has been taken to cancel the open tender with special conditions,» the statement reads.
The Department of Architecture and Capital Construction at the Regional Military Administration confirmed to NikVesti that funding for 2026 had not been approved.
«It was planned to allocate funding to revise the design and cost estimate documentation, but delays have arisen due to changes in budgetary legislation; funding for the construction works is planned to be drawn from the state budget, but there are currently no confirmed sources,» they said.
The Regional State Administration reported that 99.4 million hryvnias have already been spent on the restoration of the grammar school. However, according to data from Spending, a website monitoring the use of public funds, the Department of Architecture has transferred a total of around 95.4 million hryvnias to the contractor, «Zhytloproombud-8», since 2023.
At present, the project is only about 40 per cent complete. To complete the restoration, the following work still needs to be carried out, the Regional State Administration added:
- complete the restoration of the facades;
- carry out the interior finishing of the premises;
- install electrical equipment;
- install a lift for people with disabilities;
- fit out the shelter;
- complete the landscaping of the grounds.
Read also the article by NikVesti entitled «Survived four shelling incidents: What is the fate of the historic building of Lyceum №2 in the centre of Mykolaiv?»
Restoration of Lyceum №2
The issue of restoring Gymnasium №2 had been raised even before the full-scale invasion. In March 2021, the gymnasium building was declared structurally unsafe. A petition was then launched on the city council’s website calling for the gymnasium to be kept in a functional state, which was supported by over a thousand residents. Two days later, Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, stated that the regional authorities were ready to cooperate with the city authorities on the restoration of Gymnasium №2.
In May 2021, Oleksandr Pozdniakov, head of the capital construction department at Mykolaiv City Council, reported that two companies had responded to a commercial tender to assess the gymnasium’s structural safety. It turned out that only part of the roof was in a state of disrepair, and there was no threat to teaching activities. The library and museum were then «relocated» from that wing of the school.
Later, the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, announced that minor repairs were planned for Gymnasium №2 by the end of 2021, whilst major works would be postponed for the time being.
Since the start of the full-scale war, the school has endured four enemy shelling incidents. The first occurred in April 2022. The building was damaged by the use of cluster munitions.
Consequently, the restoration of the school was included among the four sites in the Mykolaiv region for which the government has allocated 1.2 billion hryvnias for reconstruction in 2024. Of this sum, 149.5 million hryvnias from the state budget has been allocated for the reconstruction of Gymnasium №2.
In July 2023, the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration commissioned a design, and subsequently launched a tender for the restoration of the building, which was won by the company «Zhytloproombud-8» with a bid of 145.5 million hryvnias. The contractor was due to complete the work by 31 December 2024, including the fitting out of a shelter and the restoration of the building following shelling. However, the contractor failed to complete the work on time, and it was postponed until 2025.
This publication was produced within the framework of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) project “Strengthening Public Oversight,” with financial support from Norway. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the NGO “Mykolaiv Media Hub” and the online media outlet “NikVesti.” This material can in no way be considered as reflecting the views of IWPR or the Government of Norway.
