The Odessa City Council is on the verge of being dissolved

The cancellation of the Odessa City Council’s scheduled session on September 9 indicates that the political crisis is deepening and could have serious consequences for the city—including the dissolution of the council by the Verkhovna Rada.

Intent compiled reactions after the session failed to take place.

Councilmember Oleksiy Potapsky said that the agenda included important healthcare issues. According to him, if these issues are not voted on by the end of September, several city hospitals will lose funding from the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU) for the coming year.

In that case, the council member noted, the costs of maintaining these hospitals would have to be covered by the city budget. Potapsky estimates the potential financial burden at hundreds of millions of hryvnias.

“This is money that won’t go toward supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine, repairs after airstrikes, elevators, roofs, and so on,” he wrote.

The council member suggested that if the situation blocking the city council’s work continues, the Verkhovna Rada may ultimately decide to dissolve it.

Deputy Oleksandr Slavskyi wrote that the city council’s work has been blocked for over four months “to serve the power struggle of a person who is not a citizen of Ukraine.” He also expects a response from the head of the Odesa City State Administration, Serhiy Lysak, and central government authorities.

The council member called the behavior of the “Trust the Deeds” faction and its leadership “utterly irresponsible.”

Councilwoman Zhanna Mandrychenko also emphasized that it has not been possible to hold a full city council session since April. According to her, council members are unable to pass the decisions necessary for education, healthcare, the city’s daily functioning, and its development.

She stated that internal party disputes, personal insults, and political conflicts are harming the interests of Odesa.

The “Trust the Deeds” party accuses the city council’s leadership of disrupting its work. The party stated that the events of September 9 once again demonstrated the inability of City Council Secretary and Acting Mayor Ihor Koval to organize the work of the council members.

Anatoliy Boiko, chairman of the Odessa Committee of Voters of Ukraine, stated that the latest disruption of the session indicates a deepening of the political crisis in the council, which has been ongoing for nearly a year.

"This creates both immediate risks for the city’s functioning and formal grounds for the city’s military administration to appeal to the Verkhovna Rada to transfer the remaining powers from the city council to the city’s military administration and effectively and permanently abolish local self-government in Odesa until the next local elections,” Boiko noted.

He called on all political forces in the city council to recognize the danger and resume effective work.

Ірина Глухова