Mykolaiv Lyceum Students Face Danger During Air Raids as Shelter Delay Hits 2025

Students and staff of the Mykolaiv Lyceum in Odesa Oblast have been waiting for two years for the construction of a shelter, for which UAH 5.3 million was allocated. Due to delays, children are forced to stay outside during air raids, risking their lives.

This was reported by the publication Antikorruptionnyi vymir.

According to the journalists, the repair of the shelter was supposed to be completed in 2023, but the deadline was constantly postponed. The latest new completion date is May 31, 2025. At the same time, the contractor, Eurotransstroy, has already received most of the funding.

The lyceum's staff note that there is no electricity, water supply, or other necessary conditions inside the shelter. All they've done so far is plaster the walls, take out the garbage and paint the surfaces. However, even in this state, the shelter remains closed to students.

Photo: Olena Chernysheva/ Anti-Corruption Dimension.

"When the air raid alarm sounds, teachers take the children out through the only main exit, and we stand under the school at a distance of 50 meters. If a missile or drone arrives, it's a mass grave," says a lyceum teacher on condition of anonymity.

Students during the drill. Photo: Olena Chernysheva.

More than 400 students study at the school. The staff repeatedly appealed to the school director, but she took no action. Representatives of the lyceum have also repeatedly reported the lack of a shelter to various institutions, including the prosecutor's office, police, and the Department of Education, but received only formal responses.

The repair contract was signed without an open tender. The contractor, Eurotransstroy PE, received more than UAH 5.3 million for the construction of the shelter in 2023, and almost UAH 500,000 more in 2024. This company regularly receives budget contracts, having signed agreements worth more than UAH 138 million, most of them under a non-competitive procedure. The company itself employs only 11 people, of whom only three are workers.

Meanwhile, the contractor with the most expensive offer and overpayments included in the estimate was selected to build a shelter for a gymnasium in the resort village of Burlacha Balka in Odesa region.

And in Odesa, the overhaul of a civil defense shelter at 67 Staroportofrankivska Street went up by almost UAH 2.5 million. In Chornomorsk, Odesa region, an agreement was signed to build a shelter for lyceum No. 3, but the tender raised questions about the cost of materials.

Андрій Колісніченко