Mykolaiv Oblast communities spend 12 times more on "parks" than on defense

Mykolaiv Oblast, which suffers from shelling on a daily basis, is showing a rapid trend toward curtailing funding for territorial defense (TOD) in favor of landscaping.

This is evidenced by the results of the analysis of budget expenditures of 52 communities in the region for 2022-2025, conducted by the Center for Public Investigations.

<b>Priorities in numbers</b>

Over the four years of full-scale war, communities in the Mykolaiv region have spent a total of only UAH 275 million on the ATO. At the same time, 3.2 billion hryvnias were spent on the improvement of settlements - repairing sidewalks, parks and lighting. Thus, spending on "comfort" exceeded defense spending by more than 12 times.

<b>Rapid decline in interest in TRP</b>

Analysts have recorded an annual decline in the number of communities that allocate funds to prepare the population for national resistance:

• <b>2022:</b> 37 communities (71.2% of the total);
• <b>2023:</b> 22 communities (42.3%);
• <b>2024:</b> 15 communities (28.8%);
• <b>2025:</b> only 6 communities (11.5%) continue to receive funding.

That is, only <b>5 communities</b> in the region (less than 10%) have been supporting the CBA consistently throughout the entire period. Instead, one in four communities (25%) did not plan or spend any defense expenditures at all over the years.

<b>District peculiarities and the myth of occupation</b>

The worst situation with systemic support for defense was recorded in <b>Bashtanka and Voznesenka districts</b>, where no community financed the TRU annually. In the Bashtanka district, there is a "throwing around": after an active start in 2022, by 2025, all communities in the district had completely stopped funding.

Interestingly, the fact of being under occupation had almost no impact on budget policy. Out of 11 communities whose territories were seized or partially blocked, 7 communities did not allocate a single hryvnia for the entire period of time.

The issue of financing defense measures depended solely on the understanding of the importance of these steps by the leadership of each particular community, not on the real threat or financial capacity," the authors of the study conclude.

As of the end of 2025, the preparation of the population for territorial defense in the region was the exception, not the rule, despite the ongoing armed aggression.

In addition, in 2022-2025, communities in Odesa district spent UAH 767.2 million to support territorial defense and UAH 5.5 billion on landscaping and maintenance.

Сергій Бондаренко