It's come to this: Mykolaiv has run out of money — Sienkevych talks about unpaid leave

Mykolaiv is moving into strict austerity: Senkevych warned of a shortage of funds

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08 Aug 2026

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In Mykolaiv, due to a severe municipal budget shortfall, authorities plan to further cut spending on public amenities and road repairs. The situation could reach the point where employees of communal enterprises will have to be sent on unpaid leave. The mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych, said this in the broadcast of the “MART” TV channel.

According to the mayor, the lack of funds is already directly affecting the city’s day-to-day operations. Communal enterprises lack money even to purchase fuel, and the ability to carry out pothole repairs on city roads is severely limited.

Speaking about the financial situation, Oleksandr Senkevych warned that, given the current state of the budget, the city may run out of funds even to retain employees. According to him, city authorities have provided the Ministry of Finance with full information about the budget and are asking the central government to help find a way to finance basic needs until the end of the year.

— We are now heading to the point where we may simply have no money at all and will have to send people on unpaid leave. That’s why we are doing everything to secure these funds. We opened up and handed over all information about our budget to the Ministry of Finance, down to the penny, so that it is clear we are not hiding money, nor using it inefficiently, nor allocating it to non-priority areas. Please, give us guidance on what to do to get through this year: pay salaries, cover utilities and organize the heating season, cleaning, spreading salt on roads in winter, and so on, — Senkevych said.

Funding for the city’s cultural sector remains a separate problem. According to the mayor, the salaries of its employees remain “meager” and average up to 8 thousand hryvnias. At the same time, the planned increase in pay from January 1, if its financing is again placed on local budgets, could become an additional burden for Mykolaiv that the city simply has no funds for.

Explaining his position on raising pay for cultural workers, Oleksandr Senkevych emphasized that the idea of increasing payments is correct, but in his view it should be financed by the state taking into account the real financial condition of each community.

— It’s a mockery. The idea that salaries should be increased from January 1 is a good one, it’s great, but the question is again adopting the decision and passing its implementation onto the local budget… We already cannot cope with the problems we have, and additionally loading more will not solve the problem. It will create a new one — we definitely won’t have money for this. There is no money now and it will not appear from anywhere. So we will also raise this issue at a higher level. Maybe in other communities, I don’t know, in Western Ukraine where the budget situation is better, this is possible. In Mykolaiv it is definitely impossible, so we will say that a diversified approach is needed — to use different approaches for different communities and actually check their financial status and capabilities and subsidize them. I believe that people should be given a normal, deserved salary and this should be done by the state, — the mayor said.