Earlier this year, Kyiv authorities had to close six metro stations that connected one of the most populated districts with the rest of the city after cracks appeared in tunnels, releasing ground water.
"It wasn’t a Russian missile that reduced the elegant 19th-century Zelenskiy mansion in downtown Kyiv to rubble; a Ukrainian developer demolished it to build yet another high rise," reports Politico.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko is blamed for the destruction of the monument and is increasingly accused of major errors in city management.
Klitschko under fire for Zelensky's residence demolition, metro woes amid war
Zelensky’s manor ruined
To the outside world, Klitschko, the former world heavyweight boxing champion, is one of the most recognizable and tersely polite faces of Ukrainian resistance against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s murderous attack. However, to a growing number of Kyiv residents, he is failing them as the city’s mayor, a position he has held for 10 years.
Many complaints focus on his failure to stop ruthless developers from levelling the city’s heritage — the destruction of Zelenskyy’s residence (unrelated to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — editor’s note) and other historic buildings — as well as the alleged involvement of his administration in severe infrastructural problems, such as the cracking of metro tunnels.
“Klitschko does not share responsibility for what is happening in his city,” Kyiv activist Dmytro Perov, who has been fighting the demolition of historic buildings for over eight years, told Politico.
Klitschko: It’s political vendetta
Klitschko denies the accusations. He claims that his administration facilitates the life of real estate tycoons and views the criticism as "political vendetta."
Vitaly Klitschko’s critics come out swinging over boxing champ’s record as Kyiv mayor
“The demolition of the Zelenskiy mansion is a cynical destruction of a historical building by its owner. Unfortunately, the city does not have any legal instruments to force building owners to reconstruct them. We cannot put a police officer next to each of them. This is private property,” Klitschko explained.
So, does that mean it’s no one’s fault? Everyone is pointing the finger at someone else.
Overall, 23 historical buildings were destroyed in Kyiv since the start of the Russian invasion, and only two of them by Russian missiles. Ukrainian construction developers can take responsibility for the rest, said Hanna Bondar, a Ukrainian lawmaker.
Klitschko blames the construction businesses, central government and law enforcement for manipulating and sabotaging his administration’s work.
- Central authorities retort the blame lies with Klitschko, citing the inability of the mayor’s office to prepare legal documentation that would allow for protection of the buildings. Meanwhile, the construction continues unabated in Kyiv as the war rages on.
- ‘A photo with Klitschko doesn’t mean we’re friends’
Metro crack up
The metro director, a member of Klitschko’s party, was dropped from his post in March after Ukrainian journalists published an investigation into his illicit enrichment.
The acting director who took over was put under house arrest last week on suspicion of professional negligence. The tunnels had been well built but negligence over the course of the past 10 years led to cracks, Kyiv prosecutors said.
- Kyiv’s city council hits back that mistakes were made during construction, under the previous administration.
- The council added that putting the acting metro chief under house arrest complicates the work of the whole subway system and potentially stalls the reconstruction of closed stations.
Kyiv faces problems above the surface too.
Some of the capital’s key bridges are neglected, but the mayor decided to build a new one that in no way solves city’s traffic problems, as it runs to a recreational island in the middle of the River Dnipro.
When asked about the logic for the new bridge construction during war, Klitschko said the project started before the invasion, and by the start of hostilities Kyiv had received the whole bridge, made from steel from the Azovstal mill, now destroyed by the Russians. So, he decided to ask for funds to finish it rather than let it rot.
“Recreational zones are important as a major stress relief during war. Furthermore, our wounded soldiers told me they need a place for outdoor rehabilitation … Guys asked for a place where they could go fishing and so on,” Klitschko said.
The argument over lack of space is questionable. Kyiv has more than 740 parks and squares and several dozen beaches on the Dnipro River.
The alternatives are worse
Klitschko acknowledges his performance as a mayor is not perfect, but says he has improved a lot in the city since he took over the office, increasing the budget to 70 billion hryvnia (€1.6 billion) from only 20 billion hryvnia, making the city more transparent, opening dozens of recreational zones, and fighting corruption.
However, the central government has been trying to undermine Kyivans’ trust in him, he argues.
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- Klitschko was at one point one of the top competitors to Zelenskyy should he have decided to run for president, and he had a conflict with the presidential office on who should control the capital.
“Any kind of political ambitions nowadays are delirious! We should put all of that aside and unite or else we would lose the country,” he said.
“Kyivans continue to vote for him because his propaganda actively brainwashes people into mistakenly believeing the other alternatives are even worse. And he is well-known, he is stable. In 2020 he presented himself also as the only viable pro-Ukrainian and pro-European candidate against the seriously pro-Russian ones,” Oleh Symoroz, a Kyiv activist and war veteran, told POLITICO.
“Klitschko claims powerful antagonists are trying to discredit him. In reality, he has a majority and stable votes in the city council. Even the so-called “opposition” parties vote together with his political force on most of the issues, like positions on budget and land issues,” Symoroz said.
Klitschko said without coordinating with the central government, his powers were limited. But he would still not allow developers to do whatever they want.
Symoroz, who lost both his legs in the war, now feels trapped in his apartment. Kyiv is far from an easy place for disabled people, but the closure of metro stations in his district made it almost impossible to move around.
“Kyivans are stuck in traffic for hours every day. It is so all painful for me. I fought against Russian occupiers. But sometimes it seems that our city is already occupied by people, who act against the city’s sake,” Symoroz complained.
This piece has been updated with additional remarks by Symoroz.
