The Mykolaiv City Council is asking the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada to allocate ₴1.18 billion to the city

The Mykolaiv City Council is asking the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada to allocate ₴1.18 billion in subsidies. Photo: NikVesti archive

The Mykolaiv City Council has appealed to the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers. The city is requesting an additional ₴1.18 billion in subsidies from Ukraine’s state budget for 2026, as the local budget is running a deficit, particularly regarding the payment of salaries, meals in nurseries and compensation for travel costs for those entitled to concessions.

Councillors voted in favour of the appeal today, 6 August, at a session of the Mykolaiv City Council, according to NikVesti.

As Mykolaiv’s mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, noted, this is a repeat request, as the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet of Ministers did not respond last time. Furthermore, the composition of the Cabinet of Ministers has been updated: it now includes representatives from the Mykolaiv region.

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«We have taken this decision as a result of the lack of feedback from the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet of Ministers. It is also due to the change in the composition of the Cabinet of Ministers and the appointment of a new Prime Minister. We are raising this matter once again regarding a situation that has not changed in any way since December 2025, when we were drawing up the budget with you. We are appealing to them once more and, as they say, we now have more representatives from the Mykolaiv region in this government. We very much hope that they will help us secure this grant, if not in full, then at least in part. However, it would be desirable for all matters relating to the grant to be funded,» said the mayor.

Thirty-two councillors voted in favour of the motion.

The text of the appeal states that the city’s budget was affected by the loss of revenue from personal income tax. This was described as the main source of revenue for the local budget.

«As a result of changes to budgetary legislation and the removal of personal income tax from the salaries of military personnel and law enforcement officers, the budget of the Mykolaiv City Territorial Community will be short of 2.7 billion hryvnias in 2025, and in 2026 this figure will rise to around 3 billion hryvnias, or almost 50 per cent of total personal income tax revenue,» the statement reads.

The statement also noted that the budget deficit amounts to approximately 1.178 billion hryvnias. Specifically:

• for public sector staff salaries — 169.9 million hryvnias;
• for utility bills and energy costs — 133.5 million hryvnias;
• for providing meals in nurseries and for pupils in Years 1–11 at schools — 65.8 million hryvnias;
• compensation payments for subsidised travel by public transport — 15.3 million hryvnias;
• compensation payments to students at vocational institutions;
• who are fully state-funded, and to pupils assigned a guardian or carer — 9 million hryvnias;
• to resolve drinking water issues and ensure the uninterrupted operation of the heating supply system — 784.5 million hryvnias.

It should be recalled that in May, the Mykolaiv City Council appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers requesting an additional grant of 1.1 billion hryvnias for the city.

Back in January, the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, stated that he would travel to Kyiv to advocate for the city’s need for a 1.1 billion hryvnias subvention. He later explained that the Ministry of Finance would spend up to four months reviewing the state of the city’s budget in order to justify the need for additional funding from the state budget.

According to Mykolaiv’s mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, the decision to allocate additional funds depends not only on the Ministry of Finance’s calculations but also on the political will of parliament.

As the mayor noted, as of July, the government had still not provided an official response, whilst the Ministry of Finance continues to analyse the city budget.

Meanwhile, the newly appointed Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Vitalii Kim, the former head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, stated that he would continue to support the region and promised to defend its interests during the allocation of state budget funds and to work on the «South 2.0» economic strategy.

Shortfall in Mykolaiv’s budget

The Mykolaiv City Council has appealed to the government and parliament to provide an additional grant from the state budget. According to the city’s calculations, its own budget revenue for 2026 covers only 82.5 per cent of actual needs, whilst the shortfall in financial resources exceeds 1 billion 140 million hryvnias.

In total, budget revenue for 2026 amounts to 5.54 billion hryvnias, whilst total budget expenditure stands at 5.26 billion hryvnias.

The Mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, emphasised that the 2026 budget is effectively a survival budget and does not cover all the community’s needs. In particular, the Mykolaiv budget lacks the funds to implement the pay rise for teachers initiated by the state.