Five social bus routes are operating in the frontline villages of the Mykolaiv region: there are plans to expand them in the autumn

Social transport routes. Photo: Proliska-Mykolaiv Facebook page

There are five social bus routes operating in the Mykolaiv region, connecting frontline villages with towns where residents can access essential social and medical services. From the end of September, the region plans to launch new routes, including to Yelanets, Bashtanka, Domanivka and Veselynove.

Olha Krynytska, regional coordinator of the «Proliska» humanitarian mission in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, spoke about this in a comment to NikVesti.

According to her, the social transport programme began operating back in 2016 in the Donetsk region. At that time, the social buses helped residents of villages near Donetsk Airport, who had effectively been left without regular transport links due to the hostilities.

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Following the start of the full-scale invasion, «Proliska», with the support of international partners, expanded the programme to eight regions of Ukraine. Currently, social buses provide regular transport services for residents of over 900 settlements.

«We are launching social bus routes in areas where there are no official transport operators and people cannot reach essential public services: hospitals, pharmacies, the Administrative Services Centre, the Pension Fund and so on,» explained Olha Krynytska.

Social buses run once or twice a week. All residents of the settlements along the route can use them free of charge. Passengers are registered in advance by the village head or another designated person, after which the bus collects passengers according to the list.

Social transport routes. Photo: Proliska-Mykolaiv Facebook page

The bus usually stays in a town or other settlement for around four hours. During this time, people can run their necessary errands — visit a doctor, a chemist’s, a bank, the Administrative Services Centre or other institutions — after which the bus takes them back home. Passengers are also provided with drinking water free of charge.

The following routes are currently operating in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions:

• Petrivka — Novoochakiv — Novoukrainka — Bereznehuvate — return (80 kilometres);
• Poliana — Chervona Dolyna — Shyroke — Snihurivka — return (50 kilometres);
• Novopetrivka — Liubyne — Shyroke (on request) — Snihurivka — return (60 kilometres);
• Klapaia — Blahodatne — Posad-Pokrovske — Mykolaiv — return (120 kilometres);
• Chornobaivka — Klapaia — Blahodatne — Kyselivka — Posad-Pokrovske — Mykolaiv — return (180 kilometres).

According to the coordinator, the routes were designed to meet the needs of residents in villages where there are no regular transport services and where it is most difficult for people to reach other settlements.

Social routes. Photo: Proliska-Mykolaiv Facebook page

Representatives of the mission also personally drove along the proposed routes to assess the condition of the roads and determine the most convenient route. Another important criterion was whether people at their final destination would be able to access several essential services at once.

«We made sure that the destination we were travelling to met all needs: there was a bank, a Public Services Centre, and a range of social services that people should be able to access,» noted Olha Krynytska.

The programme is funded by international partners. The project is being implemented with financial support from UK aid, provided by the UK Government. It is being implemented by the «Proliska» humanitarian mission as part of the PULSE National Consortium, coordinated by the «Right to Protection» Charitable Foundation. Support is provided through the SHARP component of the Humanitarian Assistance, Recovery and Protection Programme.

The ‘Proliska’ humanitarian mission plans to continue expanding its social transport network. From the end of September, over 50 new routes are set to be launched.

«The number of routes is increasing; we plan to expand further this year. We will be opening routes to Yelanets, Bashtanka, Domanivka and Veselynove. These are completely new routes,» she noted.

As a reminder, in November 2025, Odesa allocated 10 million hryvnias to launch free social transport routes. In the near future, 20 humanitarian buses — which the city received from its twin cities, Regensburg and Istanbul, a year earlier — will begin transporting Odessa residents to social care facilities.

Prior to that, in April 2025, free social bus services were launched in the Kherson region: residents of the region were given the opportunity to travel to Mykolaiv free of charge, with social buses operating on two routes.