Balabanivka has no future: after the school, they even took away the kindergarten

In Balabanivka, debate continues after the decision of deputies of the Mykolaiv City Council to liquidate kindergarten No.138, located at Oleh Kravets Street, 79. Officially, city authorities explain that the institution has not been operating since the start of the full-scale war, and it is impossible to resume its work due to the lack of conditions to equip a shelter. At the same time, activists Anna Kurkurina and Svitlana Fedorova, who visited the kindergarten grounds, question how the authorities are presenting the situation.

Recall that on April 30, 2026, during a city council session deputies supported the liquidation of only one of the three kindergartens put up for consideration — namely kindergarten No.138 in Balabanivka. 29 deputies voted for this decision. Decisions regarding kindergartens No.128 and No.104 were not adopted at that time.

The official position of the city authorities is that some preschool institutions in Mykolaiv cannot return to operation because of safety requirements during the war. As the head of the education department Hanna Lychko previously explained, kindergartens No.104, No.128 and No.138 are idle due to the lack of shelters and the impossibility of arranging them. According to her data, the city has 73 kindergartens operating, of which 44 already accept children offline or in a mixed format, and in total these institutions educate 7,830 children.

Specifically regarding kindergarten No.138, the official noted that it has not functioned since the start of the full-scale war, and resuming its work is impossible precisely because there are no conditions to equip a shelter. The authorities also pointed to the small design capacity of the institution — 26 children — while during the downtime staff continued to be paid 2/3 of their salaries, and the building was partially heated due to having its own boiler house.

During the session, the mayor Oleksandr Senkevych emphasized that privatization of kindergartens No.104, No.128 and No.138 is not currently on the agenda. According to him, this concerns the liquidation of legal entities, and the buildings themselves are to be mothballed.

At the same time, activists Anna Kurkurina and Svitlana Fedorova went to Balabanivka after the session and showed kindergarten No.138 on video. They claim that the grounds look well maintained and the institution itself does not appear to be a completely neglected object. In their view, the authorities should have explained in more detail to people why liquidation was chosen rather than looking for options to preserve the childcare infrastructure in the neighborhood.

The activists were particularly outraged that there is already a school in Balabanivka that was destroyed in Russian shelling. Now, after the decision regarding the kindergarten, the neighborhood risks being left without key educational facilities for children.

One of the activists emotionally stated on video that without the school and kindergarten the district effectively loses prospects for families with children.

“I consider these to be dead districts. They are turning Balabanivka, as Anya rightly says, into a cemetery.”

According to the activists, residents they spoke with on site said that deputies had not visited them and had not taken a direct interest in the situation in the neighborhood. The video also claimed that parents allegedly asked when kindergarten No.138 would open, not when it would be liquidated.

A separate question is the future fate of the land. In their appeal the activists mention 3.7 hectares of land together with the kindergarten building and express concern that after the liquidation the property could later end up for sale. The authorities, for their part, say that privatization is not being considered now, but this does not remove distrust among some residents and activists.

So the situation around kindergarten No.138 has two sides. On one hand, the city cites wartime requirements, the lack of a shelter, the institution’s downtime and the economic impracticality of maintaining a low-capacity kindergarten. On the other hand, residents and activists see the risk of losing an important social facility in a neighborhood that already has fewer living conditions for families with children after the school was destroyed.

The main question now is not only why kindergarten No.138 cannot operate without a shelter. The question is broader: did the city authorities do everything possible to preserve childcare infrastructure for Balabanivka, or did they simply choose the easiest route — liquidation?