Mykolaiv Hospitals and Schools Face Urgent Shelter Shortages Amid Safety Concerns

Hospitals in Mykolaiv Oblast are facing a shortage of shelters. The situation is similar in the cultural sector, where buildings need to be renovated to meet modern safety requirements.

This is evidenced by the Mykolaiv Oblast Development Program until 2027.

Medical facilities in the Mykolaiv region lack shelters. Of the 75 available bomb shelters, only 80% were recognized as ready or partially ready.

As of October 1, 2024, there were only 75 shelters in the region's medical facilities, most of which were not fully ready for use. At least 41 more shelters need to be built to cover the needs.

The situation is similar in the cultural sector. The reason for the shortage of shelters is the need for major reconstruction of cultural buildings and art educational institutions to adapt them to modern security requirements.

According to the strategy, to improve the situation, new shelters need to be built, existing ones repaired and renovated, and their proper maintenance ensured.

Last year, the Regional Clinical Hospital was equipped with a shelter that cost UAH 98.1 million. The construction of a new shelter for the Regional Children's Clinical Hospital cost UAH 73.9 million, and UAH 21 million was spent on major repairs of the Mykolaiv Regional Clinical Hospital for War Veterans.

As for shelters in educational institutions, according to Hanna Lychko, head of the education department, the city remains at the second level of security risk. Currently, 64 educational institutions in Mykolaiv have safe shelters. In particular, 26 kindergartens have shelters and operate in a full-time format. In addition, 36 schools are already equipped with shelters and are accepting students. Among them, 1 out-of-school education institution received a shelter and 1 other type of institution was also provided with a protective structure.

At the end of January, the prosecutor's office filed a lawsuit against a department of Mykolaiv City Council for violating the deadlines for repairing shelters in the city. Law enforcement officials filed five lawsuits, demanding that additional agreements that extended the deadlines for work under the contractor agreements be invalidated. The prosecutor's office also insisted on collecting fines of about one million hryvnias.

Анна Бальчінос