Trukhanov left Lysak a legacy of lack of shelters in Odesa

The problem of the lack of shelters in Odesa - out of 3,696 necessary shelters and 124 mobile shelters, only 1,189 have been available in the city - has not been resolved in almost four years of full-scale invasion.

TheCenter for Public Investigations found out how the situation with shelters in Odesa really is, who should determine their need, and why even in the fourth year of the war, the city does not have a clear system.

In June 2025, the executive committee determined that the city needed 3,696 shelters and 124 mobile shelters. The Odesa District State Administration received and approved this calculation a week earlier. At the same time, paragraph 2 of the executive committee's decision instructed the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine to conduct a survey of the territories to identify additional facilities that could be used as dual-purpose structures to shelter the population.

At the request of the CPR to fulfill this instruction, the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Odesa Oblast advised to contact the Odesa City Military Administration directly, which gives the impression of the formal nature of this provision in the decision. In addition, the city council, at the request of the LRC to provide a list of shelters that actually work, provided not a list, but a decision on the need without further explanation.

A recognized problem and belated solutions

Back in June 2023, the Decree of the President of Ukraine enacted the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine "On the Results of Operational Inspections of the Civil Protection Facilities and Solving Problematic Issues of Sheltering the Population".

This decision recognized the work on ensuring the readiness of the civil defense facilities for their intended use, including in Odesa, as unsatisfactory.

This is how the map of shelters and shelters in Odesa looks like. PHOTO: Screenshot of the Odesa City Council website

However, it was only in April 2025, almost two years after the NSDC decision, that the Odesa City Council adopted a decision "On the Fund of Civil Defense Facilities of the City of Odesa," which approved a list of 1189 protective facilities and instructed the Executive Committee to determine the need for a fund of civil defense facilities.

Who was to determine the need for shelters in Odesa

Until 2019, one of the executive bodies of the Odesa City Council was the Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Interaction with Law Enforcement. The last found regulation of this department was approved by a decision of the Odesa City Council back in October 2013.

This regulation stipulates that the department organizes the implementation of legal requirements for the creation, use, maintenance and reconstruction of the civil defense fund, as well as determining the need for the fund.

However, the decision of the Odesa City Council "On Measures to Improve the Efficiency of Exercising the Powers of the Executive Bodies of the Odesa City Council" terminates the activities of this department. Most of its powers will be transferred to the newly created Department of Municipal Security. However, if you carefully analyze the provisions of the Department of Municipal Security as amended by the Odesa City Council's decision, you will see that almost all activities in the field of civil protection are concentrated there - except for the authority to determine the need for objects of the civil protection fund.

Previous versions of the regulation also did not contain such powers. Thus, it remains unclear which body within the Odesa City Council was responsible for calculating the need for shelters and submitting it to the district or regional authorities for approval.

Кирило Бойко