The Cabinet of Ministers is dragging its feet: humanitarian buses have not yet taken to the streets of Odesa

The Mercedes buses that Odesa received as humanitarian aid from the partner cities of Regensburg and Istanbul and that were waiting on the streets after the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed a law allowing their use have not been put on the road.

This was reported by Petro Obukhov, chairman of the Standing Committee on Transport and Roads of the Odesa City Council.

According to him, in order for the buses to be used after the law is passed, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine must approve the procedure for transferring these buses to municipal enterprises. According to the law, the procedure was supposed to take only two months, and five months have passed, but there is still no government decision.

"I asked Oleksiy Honcharenko (MP, ed.) to send an official appeal to the Prime Minister, and we received an answer: the government is working on a document that is going through the regulatory procedure," said Petro Obukhov.

For a long time, 20 modern Mercedes buses have been idle in the fleet of the Odesmiskelektrotrans utility company, which Odesa received as humanitarian aid from the partner cities of Regensburg and Istanbul. Due to legal restrictions, these buses could not go on routes. And a similar situation is observed throughout Ukraine - more than 300 such vehicles remain immobile in different cities.

Back in the spring of 2024, the Odesa City Council appealed to the Ministry of Infrastructure to solve the problem. It was supported by the Association of Ukrainian Cities, and Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov raised the issue on behalf of the Association at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President.

First, Odesa received ten buses from its sister city Regensburg, then another ten modern buses from Istanbul. According to Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov at a meeting of the executive committee, all of them became "dead weight" in the depot because they cannot be used on paid routes.

Кирило Бойко