Sienkevych on the possibility of allocating funds from the state budget for Mykolaiv
- News of Mykolaiv
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- Yuliia Boichenko
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10:51, 05 May, 2026
Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych speaking to a journalist, photo by NikVestiMykolaiv is asking the government to allocate additional funds from the state budget to the city budget and is currently in talks with the Ministry of Finance.
This was stated by Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych in a comment to NikVesti.
«We haven’t received a response from the government yet. But we are currently, I would say, working very productively with Oleksandr Pasichnyi, who sits on the budget committee. We organised a meeting with the Minister of Finance — we presented and explained all our problems. He put us in touch with the Deputy Minister, who then referred us to one of the department heads. They are working on it now. As far as I know, on Monday (27 April, — note) we sent them the latest information they had requested,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.
The mayor added that the decision to allocate additional funds depends not only on the Ministry of Finance’s calculations but also on the political will of parliament.
«We are continuing to work. This issue does not concern the Ministry of Finance and so on. It is more of a political issue. That is, the reallocation of the budget, which, I think, will be in the Verkhovna Rada in a month or two. We need a political decision, but those same Verkhovna Rada deputies must receive confirmation from the Ministry of Finance that our requests are not just additional whims or some kind of deception, but are genuinely backed up by figures. That is precisely why we are currently working with the Ministry of Finance,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.
As is known, back in January, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych stated that he would travel to Kyiv to advocate for the city’s need for a 1.1 billion hryvnias subsidy. He later explained that the Ministry of Finance would spend up to four months examining the state of the city budget in order to justify the need for additional funding from the state budget.
During a staff meeting on 2 March, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych stated that the city’s 2026 budget lacks funds even for salaries and utility bills. Because of this, the question of which projects to fund first «will be a very pressing one».
There is a shortfall in Mykolaiv’s budget. What is known?
Mykolaiv City Council has appealed to the government and parliament to provide an additional subsidy from the state budget. According to the city’s calculations, its own budget revenue for 2026 covers only 82.5% of actual needs, and the shortfall in financial resources exceeds 1.14 billion hryvnias.
In total, budget revenue for 2026 amounts to 5 billion 546 million hryvnias, whilst total budget expenditure stands at 5 billion 275 million 353 thousand 815 hryvnias.
Mykolaiv Mayor 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 funds for the pay rise for teachers initiated by the state.
Councillors also appealed to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers, demanding a pay rise for cultural workers. The document highlights the critically low level of pay in the cultural sector.
Instead, the government has raised the basic salary for cultural workers to 3,470 hryvnias. The Mykolaiv authorities have said they will look for funds in the budget to pay the supplements.
In addition to paying salaries, the city budget also lacks funds for routine and major road repairs, as stated by Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych. For example, the municipal enterprise ELU Avtodorig has received around 80 million hryvnias less than allocated in the budget.
The NGO “Mykolaiv Media Hub” (online media outlet NikVesti) wishes to acknowledge the financial assistance of the European Union through its project “Frontline and Investigative Reporting Media in Ukraine” (FAIR Media Ukraine), implemented by Internews International in partnership with the Media Development Foundation (MDF). The NGO “Mykolaiv Media Hub” (online media outlet NikVesti) retains full editorial independence, and the information presented here does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union, Internews International, or MDF.
