Mykolaiv pays millions for media coverage of the authorities while the city lacks funds

Mykolaiv ended up among Ukrainian cities that in 2025 paid the most to external media outlets for covering the activities of local authorities. According to the CHESNO movement, the leaders in such payments were Ivano-Frankivsk — 12.6 million UAH, Dnipro — 5.9 million UAH, Mykolaiv — 5.4 million UAH and Vinnytsia — 3.7 million UAH.

This is stated in a CHESNO piece about how much money city councils of regional centers spend on media, advertising, PR and coverage of their activities.

The Mykolaiv City Council operates a program for the development of the city’s information and communication sphere for 2020–2026. It is within this program that budget expenditures for work with the media are envisaged.

An activity titled “Interaction with electronic and print media, broadcasting channels of various forms of ownership regarding the coverage of the activities of local self-government bodies” envisaged 7.64 million UAH in 2025, and over 8 million UAH for 2026.

However, the sums CHESNO was able to establish from the response to its request differ significantly from the figures set out in the program. According to the processing of the package of documents provided by the city council, the figures are 5.47 million UAH in 2025 and 4.1 million UAH in 2026.

As CHESNO notes, the city council provided documents but at the same time argued that a local self-government body is not obliged to create or compile new analytical information if it was not previously systematized.

The most illustrative situation in this story appears to be related to KP “TRK “MART”, whose founder is the Mykolaiv City Council. According to CHESNO, a significant portion of the funds goes to this municipal media outlet.

At the same time, in previous responses to CHESNO’s requests the city council stated that funding for municipal media for 2025–2026 was not envisaged.

In fact, according to the documents in the package, the confirmed volume of funding for KP “TRK “MART” in 2025 amounted to at least 2,579,196 UAH, and in 2026 — 3,378,860 UAH.

CHESNO drew attention to the fact that the situation looks contradictory: formally the city council speaks of the absence of funding for the municipal media, but in practice significant sums from the program for covering the activities of local self-government bodies go precisely to KP “TRK “MART” — through contracts signed by separate departments, administrations and municipal enterprises.

“This creates a rather contradictory situation. On the one hand, the city council declares the absence of funding for the municipal media, and on the other — a significant portion of the funds from the program for covering the activities of local self-government bodies goes to it, but by roundabout ways: through contracts concluded by individual departments, administrations and municipal enterprises. Particular attention should be paid to the amounts of these contracts, which are very close to the threshold values — 49,990 or 99,990 UAH”, – CHESNO wrote.

It is worth recalling that in Ukraine as early as 2015 the Law No. 917-VIII “On the Reform of State and Municipal Print Media” was adopted. It defined the mechanism for reforming print media founded by state authorities, other state bodies and local self-government bodies. That is, it was primarily about the de-statization of newspapers and print press editorial offices, not an automatic ban on all municipal media in general.

At the same time, for municipal television and radio organizations specific rules appeared after the adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On Media” of 13 December 2022. This law defines the legal foundations for the work of local public audiovisual media services, and clarifications from the National Council and media lawyers indicated that municipal television and radio organizations should be reorganized into local public audiovisual media or undergo the appropriate transformation.

Therefore, the question around KP “TRK “MART” is not only about the mere existence of a municipal media outlet. More importantly: is it a genuinely independent public media, or does it effectively remain an instrument for covering the activities of the city authorities using budget money.

This story looks especially sensitive against the background of repeated statements about a difficult financial situation in Mykolaiv. Previously, the mayor Oleksandr Senkevych repeatedly spoke about a budget deficit, lack of funds for salaries, utilities and the operation of enterprises. In particular, in January 2026 he stated that the city was financially provided for only 82.5%, and the deficit amounts to between 1.1 and 1.2 billion UAH.

In March 2026 the mayor also emphasized that the city budget included only 82% of last year’s payroll expenditures, and there certainly would not be enough money for everything.

Against this background, expenditures on media coverage of the authorities’ activities look not just like a technical budget line. For the residents of Mykolaiv this is a question of priorities: what the city authorities consider primary during the war — salaries for public-sector employees, critical infrastructure, support for municipal enterprises, or paying for their own presence in the information space.