Klitschko faces backlash over demolitions and urban decay in Kyiv

"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 Vitaly Klitschko is blamed for the monument calamity and is increasingly accused of significant errors in city management.

Activists who tried to stop the bulldozer on 19 July to save the city's heritage said they were "beaten back by heavies." A wooden plaque beside the ruins, where the mustard classical façade once stood, reads: "This building was destroyed at the initiative of Vitaly Klitschko."

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 Zelensky's residence (unrelated to President Volodymyr Zelensky —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 denies the accusations. He claims that his administration facilitates the life of real estate tycoons and views the criticism as "political vendetta."

“My first profession is not even an athlete, but a Kyiv city guide. I know how important it is to preserve cultural heritage, and I do everything I can,” Klitschko said in an interview with the portal.

“It is easy to just say, as a mayor, I bear responsibility for everything in the city. On one hand, yes, but there are nuances. The city does not issue permits for construction, and has no influence on the developers who own historical buildings,” Klitschko added.

He blames the central authorities, namely the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and President Zelensky. He claims that for the past 10 years, he has been trying to push through a bill that would enable the city to confiscate monuments and take them out of the developers’ hands.

“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.

Overall, since the beginning of the Russian invasion, 23 historic buildings have been destroyed in Kyiv, only two of which were hit by Russian missiles. Klitschko blames construction companies, the central government, and law enforcement agencies for manipulating and sabotaging his administration's work.

The central authorities respond that Klitschko is to blame, citing the mayor's office's inability to prepare the legal documentation necessary to protect the buildings.

Ukrainian journalists have repeatedly reported on Klitschko’s ties with influential developers responsible for the city's construction, claiming that he not only introduced individuals associated with them into the Kyiv city council as members of his party but even flew on the same private jets as the developers.

"This is a lie. I know many people in this city. But my relations with them are strictly professional. A photo with Klitschko does not mean we’re friends,” said the mayor of Kyiv.

The destruction of Zelensky's residence is just the latest episode in a series of problems mounting since the beginning of the Russian invasion. Earlier this year, Kyiv authorities had to close six metro stations connecting one of the most densely populated districts with the rest of the city after groundwater seeped into the tunnels through cracks.

Kyiv is also grappling with issues on the surface. Some of the capital’s most important bridges are neglected. Yet, the mayor decided to build a new one that in no way resolves the city’s traffic problems, as it leads to a recreational island in the middle of the Dnieper River.