Ukraine's National Security Council creates commission for inspecting bridges and overpasses

The National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine has created a commission for inspecting the condition of bridges and overpasses in Ukraine.

Source: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, in a video address on Friday following the results of the National Security and Defence Council meeting.

Zelenskyy said that the situation in Kyiv is among the worst in Ukraine.

Quote: "Denys Shmyhal, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, reported also about a complex situation with the condition of bridges and bridge crossings in the biggest Ukrainian cities, mainly in Kyiv. Their condition is straight up dangerous, so the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine has decided to create a commission for checking all the bridges and overpasses throughout the country," Zelenskyy stated.

Oleksandr Kubrakov, the Deputy Prime-Minister of Ukraine, was put in charge.

Background: There are 171 bridge and overpass constructions in the city of Kyiv, 75 out of them are in disrepair or in pre-emergency condition since they have not been repaired for decades.

The problem became apparent in February 2017, when the Shuliavskyi overpass partially collapsed. The overpass was recognized as being in disrepair back in 2013, with its reconstruction being postponed until 2015 but it has not been conducted.

In February 2020 Vitalii Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, entrusted the public utilities services of the city to conduct an additional check-up of the bridges and overpasses of the capital and dismantle the cladding fragments, which may be potentially dangerous for the participants of the road traffic.

In 2021 it was revealed that a large sum of money was laundered through the repair of the Southern Bridge in Kyiv. Police conducted a series of searches in connection with illegal schemes and embezzlement of budget money on a large scale.

At the end of 2022, the residents of Kyiv registered a petition in which they demanded to urgently repair the collapsing Darnytsia Bridge, but, as it turned out, is not even on the Kyivavtodor [communal corporation created for maintenance and repair of automobile routes and transport constructions – ed.] register. The bridge had the status of a building site for 10 years until 2020.

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