Inna Andalitska13:10, 04.06.23

As of this morning, about 1,100 shelters have been checked in the capital, of which only 597 are ready for use.

Half of the Kyiv shelters checked by the special commission are not working – they are not ready for use or they could not be opened.

Oleksandr Kamyshin, the Minister of Strategic Industry of Ukraine, announced this in Telegram , publishing detailed statistics based on the results of the inspection as of the morning of June 4.

“I heard the results of the Kyiv shelter audit commission for the first day of work. As of 8 a.m. today, 1,078 facilities have been inspected. Half of them are non-working – not ready for use or the commission could not open,” he said.

He noted that he took with disbelief the fact that half of the bomb shelters were opened and considered ready. 

“Yesterday, when we selectively checked the shelters in the Obolon district with our mayor, the absolute majority of the shelters were closed. And when we did open them, they turned out to be unfit for use. The team explained the high percentage of open and ready on the first day by the fact that most verified shelters in the first day were in schools, kindergartens and hospitals. And the situation there is a little better than in general in the city,” Kamyshin explained.

According to the published data of the inspection results, out of 1078 shelters, 597 (or 55%) are ready for use, 359 shelters (or 33%) are not ready, and 122 objects (or 11%) could not be opened.

The scandal with bomb shelters – what is happening

As you know, after June 1, when a tragedy occurred near the shelter in Kyiv – three people (two women and a child) were killed in the Desnyansk district , who could not hide through the closed doors of the bomb shelter during rocket fire – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy instructed the Minister of Strategic Industries of Industry Oleksandr Kymyshin to conduct a full audit of protective structures in Kyiv, and to the Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko – throughout the country. 

The commission for checking shelters in the capital was headed by the first deputy head of the KMVA, Major General Volodymyr Kydon.

At the same time, Kamyshin said that in addition to the work of the commission, he and the mayor of Kyiv Vitaliy Klitschko will also inspect selective shelters. It is planned to visit the shelter of one district of the city in one day, thus, in 10 days, check the situation in all 10 districts .

According to Roman Tkachuk, Director of the Department of Municipal Security of the KMDA, the existing working protective structures of Kyiv can protect 2.8 million people . In general, according to his information, the fund currently has 4,655,000 civil defense facilities, of which 514 are storage facilities and 4,141 are shelters or dual-use facilities. Of the total number of protective structures, 2,504 are communal, 1,137 are private, 244 are state property, and up to 20 are “other objects”.

On June 2, residents of Kyiv were urged to report closed shelters in Kyiv and problems related to their work to the specially created ” Shelter of Kyiv” chatbot . Also, in the “Kyiv Digital” application, a feedback service regarding the state of shelters began to function , and only a day after its launch, more than a thousand complaints were received from Kyiv residents .

(C)UNIAN 2023