Hromadas in Mykolaiv Oblast spend billions on paving, pennies on heat and power supply

During the war, the communities of Mykolaiv district spent about 2 billion hryvnias on improvement and only 88 million on territorial defense. Despite the fact that some of them have survived the occupation and the frontline is close by, the financial priorities of local authorities raise more and more questions.

This is what the Center for Public Investigations writes about in its material about the actions of community leaders aimed at preparing the population for national resistance measures by financing territorial defense activities and works in 2022-2025 in the context of each budget and comparing these expenditures with those for improvement.

This time, we will consider Mykolaiv district, which has 19 territorial communities.

Additionally, it should be noted that according to the List of territories where military operations are (were) conducted or temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation, approved by the order of the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, some of the communities of the district or their settlements were temporarily under occupation.

The TROs were supported annually:

This group includes communities that annually budgeted for and made expenditures on TRO. At the same time, they did not forget about landscaping. For example:

Mykolaiv city community - expenditures on maintenance and repair of public transport facilities were constantly decreasing and amounted to UAH 41.3 million in 2022, UAH 23.5 million in 2023, UAH 11.1 million in 2024, and UAH 2 million in 2025. The total budget expenditures for this period amounted to UAH 4.3 billion, UAH 6.7 billion, UAH 6.4 billion and UAH 7.3 billion, respectively. Expenditures for paving amounted to: UAH 183 million in 2022, UAH 518.1 million in 2023, UAH 421.1 million in 2024, and UAH 465 million in 2025.

Novodesska urban community - expenditures on TROs make up a small part of the budget, but are made regularly. In 2022 - UAH 612.4 thousand, in 2023 - UAH 229.1 thousand, in 2024 - UAH 393.4 thousand, in 2025 - UAH 100 thousand. During this period, expenditures on landscaping amounted to UAH 678.4 thousand, UAH 1.9 million, UAH 11.2 million, and UAH 2.7 million, respectively. Total budget expenditures for this period amounted to UAH 828.6 million.

Territorial defense is an integrated mechanism that brings together military units, local authorities and civil society to ensure security and defense at the local level. It is not only about the formation of TRO brigades, but also about preparing the population to resist the aggressor.

One-time funding for TROs

This group includes communities where expenditures on territorial defense measures were made only during one year of full-scale war or were formally declared without actual funding.

TheBerezan community spent UAH 51.1 thousand on TRO in 2022. In 2023-2025, these expenditures were not even planned. At the same time, the expenditures on landscaping for 2022-2025 totaled UAH 20 million, with total budget expenditures for this period amounting to UAH 727.3 million.

TheSukhoyelanetska community spent UAH 10.8 thousand on maintenance in 2022. In the following years, there were no planned allocations. At the same time, in 2022-2025, expenditures on landscaping amounted to UAH 3.9 million. Total budget expenditures for this period amounted to UAH 215.8 million.

In 2022, theMishkovo-Pohorilivska community made expenditures for the TRO in the amount of UAH 33.3 thousand. At the same time, expenditures for landscaping were made annually in 2022-2025 and amounted to UAH 1.9 million, UAH 9.8 million, UAH 12.3 million and UAH 8.1 million, respectively. Total budget expenditures for this period amounted to UAH 467.8 million.

TheStepivska community spent UAH 370.5 thousand on the TRO in 2022. Later, there were no planned allocations. At the same time, expenditures on landscaping in 2022-2025 amounted to UAH 2.1 million, UAH 3 million, UAH 12.4 million and UAH 4.5 million, respectively. Total budget expenditures for this period amounted to UAH 492.8 million.

Funding TROs from time to time

This group includes communities where expenditures on territorial defense were made irregularly, with gaps in some years.

Kutsurubska community - expenditures on TRO in 2022 amounted to UAH 896.3 thousand, in 2023 - UAH 127.2 thousand. In 2024-2025, there are no planned allocations. At the same time, expenditures for landscaping were made regularly and amounted to UAH 245.9 thousand, UAH 1.4 million, UAH 1 million, and UAH 5.7 million in 2022-2025, respectively. Total budget expenditures for this period amounted to UAH 318.1 million.

Vesnianska community - both expenditures for maintenance and improvement grew along with total budget expenditures, but at different rates. In 2022, expenditures for maintenance and repair did not even have any planned allocations, in 2023 - 146 thousand, in 2024 - 161.6 thousand, in 2025 - 688.5 thousand hryvnias. In the same period, expenditures on landscaping amounted to UAH 880.4 thousand, UAH 4.3 million, UAH 4.6 million, and UAH 7 million, respectively. The total budget expenditures amounted to UAH 67.2 million, UAH 114.8 million, UAH 129.1 million and UAH 159.2 million, respectively.

Koblivska community - expenditures on TRO were made in 2022 (UAH 1.3 million) and in 2023 (UAH 114.4 thousand). In 2024, expenditures were only planned, but not actually made, and in 2025, there were no planned allocations. At the same time, expenditures for landscaping were made regularly and amounted to UAH 1.9 million, UAH 10.5 million, UAH 3.9 million, and UAH 4.1 million, respectively. Total budget expenditures amounted to UAH 789.3 million.

Chornomorsk community - TRO expenditures were made in 2023 and 2024 in the amount of UAH 1.7 million and UAH 630.9 thousand, respectively. No expenditures were planned for 2022 and 2025. At the same time, expenditures on landscaping grew annually and amounted to UAH 5.5 million, UAH 12.45 million, UAH 12.5 million, and UAH 17.4 million, respectively. The total budget expenditures amounted to UAH 515 million.

It should be noted that 3 settlements out of 11 in the Kostiantynivska community were under temporary occupation from March 4 to 9, 2022. This did not prevent them from making expenditures for the TRO in 2022 and 2023 in the amount of UAH 77 thousand and UAH 29.6 thousand, respectively. In 2024 and 2025, there were no planned allocations. At the same time, in 2022-2025, expenditures on landscaping amounted to UAH 10 million, out of total budget expenditures of UAH 450.7 million.

Despite the fact that 3 villages, which together with the city of Ochakiv formed the Ochakiv city community, have been under temporary occupation since February 24, 2022, this did not prevent the city from spending UAH 1.2 billion in budget funds in 2022-2025. In 2022 and 2024, 157.3 thousand and 2.5 million hryvnias were allocated for TROs, respectively. At the same time, UAH 16.8 million, UAH 28.6 million, UAH 27.9 million, and UAH 27.2 million were spent on landscaping in 2022-2025, respectively.

Without TRO funding

In 2022-2025, 7 communities did not spend a single hryvnia on territorial defense measures. At the same time, they made expenditures on landscaping.

Despite the fact that 3 of the 9 settlements of the Voskresenska community were under temporary occupation from March 4 to 18, 2022, this did not affect the decision to fund TRO. The total budget expenditures amounted to UAH 605.1 million, including UAH 45.2 million for landscaping.

TheOlshanska community spent UAH 385.6 million in 2022-2025, including UAH 11.9 million for improvements.

TheHalytsynivka council spent UAH 780.8 million over this period, including UAH 40.1 million on landscaping.

TheNechayanska community spent UAH 263.4 million, of which UAH 10.9 million was spent on landscaping.

The Shevchenkivska community, all 21 settlements of which were occupied in 2022 and gradually liberated, did not make any expenditures on TROs. At the same time, it spent UAH 726.7 million in 2022-2025, including UAH 6.7 million for landscaping.

The legislation does not establish either a minimum amount or a recommended share of the budget that local governments should allocate to territorial defense measures. The amount of such funding depends entirely on local management decisions and on which areas the local authorities prioritize under martial law.

Thecommunity of Radisnosadivka spent UAH 283.2 million, including UAH 5 million on landscaping.

The Zavodske community, all of whose settlements were occupied and subsequently liberated in 2022, also did not make any expenditures on TRO. At the same time, it spent UAH 462.7 million, including UAH 18.9 million for landscaping.

The scale of priorities

As we can see, the financing of territorial defense measures by local budgets of Mykolaiv district in comparison with the expenditures on landscaping shows a significant disproportion. In total, in 2022-2025, the district's communities spent UAH 88.2 million to support territorial defense and UAH 2 billion on landscaping. There is no direct correlation between the funding of these areas, but in most communities, spending on landscaping was significantly higher than spending on TRO.

The structure of expenditures shows that communities had financial resources, the question was how to allocate them. Which areas were prioritized depended solely on the decisions of local authorities.

Also, the communities of the district show a negative trend of non-fulfillment of obligations to organize territorial defense measures. This is evidenced by the following:

1. 7 out of 19 communities in 2022-2025 did not allocate a single hryvnia for TRO, which is almost 37% of the total number of communities.
2. In 2022, 10 communities made such expenditures, in 2023 - 7, in 2024 - 5, and in 2025 - only 3 communities. This demonstrates the curtailment of public preparation for national resistance at the local government level.

Андрій Колісніченко