Panchenko is angry with the deputies because they do not want to finance the project of rebuilding a school in his constituency for the second time

Fedir Panchenko against the background of a sketch of a new building for Lyceum №51 in his constituency in Mykolaiv, photo by NikVesti

In Mykolaiv, they want to develop another project for Lyceum №51, which was destroyed by shelling, this time to reconstruct it. Before that, the city authorities had already ordered a project for the new construction of a «golden» lyceum for 6.3 million hryvnias, according to which it would cost more than 1 billion hryvnias to build a school from scratch.

This was discussed during a meeting of the city council's budget committee on 19 November, according to NikVesti.

Deputies are proposed to amend the programme of socio-economic development of Mykolaiv for 2024-2026 by adding to the list of projects the following objects at home:

• restoration of a residential building at 4 Spaska Street. This proposal was made by the Department of Housing and Communal Services of the city council;
• reconstruction of Mykolaiv Lyceum №51. This proposal was made by the Capital Construction Department of the City Council.

Screenshot from the draft decision on amendments to the programme of social and economic development of Mykolaiv for 2024-2026

The inclusion of Lyceum №51 in this list caused a discussion among the members of the budget committee. The first to speak was Dmytro Sichko, a city council deputy from the «Proposal» party, who asked whether there was any understanding of further funding and reconstruction of the school, for which money had already been spent from the city budget.

«Please tell us about the lyceum №51. I know that this is a long-term project under discussion. Do we already have an understanding of financing or design financing, have we found investors? I mean, I would like to understand at what stage we are now, given that we are now making these changes,» asked Dmytro Sichko.

Fedir Panchenko, chairman of the budget commission, city council member from the party «Proposal», whose constituency includes the school, replied that the city authorities had ordered a project for the new construction of the lyceum because they expected the work to be financed from the state budget. Currently, he added, they are considering the option of reconstructing the lyceum, which again requires the development of a project and its financing.

«Previously, only new construction was considered, as there were negotiations with the State Development Agency. Currently, they have doubts about this, and now it is proposed to consider the option of reconstruction, not just new construction,» said Panchenko.

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After that, Maksym Kovalenko, a member of the city council from the «Proposal» party, took the floor. He asked who would be responsible for the 6.3 million hryvnias wasted from the Mykolaiv budget on the project of new construction of the lyceum, which probably will not be implemented.

«I remember that 6.3 million hryvnias had already been spent on the design and we were promised that a school would be built there. This is taxpayers' money, not a small amount. That is, we spent 6.3 million hryvnias just on documentation. This is a very large sum. We are now leaving this project on the shelf because it no longer makes any sense if there is a reconstruction. The question is: who will be responsible for these funds because they have been wasted? Because in my opinion, they were wasted,» asked Maksym Kovalenko.

Screenshot of the preliminary design of the future lyceum building, for which more than 400 thousand hryvnias were spent from the Mykolaiv budget

Screenshot of the preliminary design of the future lyceum building, which cost over 400,000 hryvnias from the Mykolaiv budget

Screenshot of the conceptual design of the future lyceum building, which cost over 400,000 hryvnias from the Mykolaiv budget

Screenshot of the draft design of the future lyceum building, which cost over 400,000 hryvnias from the Mykolaiv budget

Fedir Panchenko assured that out of 6.3 million hryvnias, only 3 million hryvnias was spent on the development of the new construction project.

«As for what was wasted. Firstly, these funds have not yet been spent, it seems that they have only spent 3 million hryvnias. Secondly, you say «and if there is a reconstruction, then you have wasted a project for new construction». And if there is a new construction, then we will have wasted a project for reconstruction?» said the head of the budget commission.

So far, the company «Design Centre «Rembud», which won the tender for the development of the lyceum's new construction project, has already been paid 2.6 million hryvnias from the Mykolaiv budget, according to the monitoring website Spending.gov.ua. Another 437.9 thousand hryvnias was spent by the city budget on the development of a sketch for the construction of a new school and 32 thousand hryvnias on the development of slides, which was paid to «Design Company «Ingroup». This means that the total amount of money spent from the city budget is currently 3 million hryvnias.

The destroyed building of Mykolaiv Lyceum №51, August 2025, photo: NikVesti

Councillor Maksym Kovalenko added that even this amount is too much to spend on project development without knowing that it will definitely be implemented.

«The issue is that even 3 million hryvnias is a lot of money. If we don't have a vision, then...,»he said, but didn't have time to finish his thought.

At this point, Fedir Panchenko added that the city authorities were counting on funding for this facility from the state budget.

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«I was inside this situation and asked myself the same question at the time. I say this because it is a very painful issue for me, and I am constantly interested in it. Was it possible to foresee it? Then the development agency said, «give us a project, we will build». And there was even news that the Cabinet of Ministers had already allocated the first huge sums,» he said.

Maksym Kovalenko noted that 1 billion hryvnias for the new construction of the lyceum is a large sum that is difficult to find in the budget.

«I remember when I was on the commission, I was told that it would really be there, and then it turned out to be a billion hryvnias, and it's clear that...» added Maksym Kovalenko.

Deputies Fedir Panchenko and Maksym Kovalenko during the session, screenshot of the city council's live broadcast

The head of the budget commission clarified that the cost of the new construction project is to be halved, citing the delay in its development by the designer. He says that the saved 3 million hryvnias will be spent on the development of the reconstruction of the institution.

«The first amounts announced there were 200 million hryvnias for that year. Could we have foreseen then that the management would change, the position would change, the circumstances would change?

Now it is really impossible to predict anything for years to come in large projects. That is, there will really be two projects and only one will work. Now they are doing things in such a way that both projects are actually done for the same money. That is, there will be penalties for designers who delayed a new construction project. In fact, the reconstruction project will be done for these funds,» said Fedir Panchenko.

Maksym Kovalenko clarified: «That is, the total amount spent will be 6.3 million, right?»

Fedir Panchenko added that in the end, the city will actually have two projects, of which only one will be implemented.

«That's about right, with a slight difference. For this money, we want to get two projects, two different ways. We are starting to go on two paths at the same time. Whichever one goes first, whichever one we can implement faster, we will implement. And yes, in this case, one of these projects will indeed be unnecessary. But there is no other way to guess,» he added.

Screenshot of the draft design of the future lyceum building

After that, the floor was taken by city council deputy Serhiy Kantor, who joined the newly created group «Sanation». He asked his colleagues to focus on the fact that the list of objects of the socio-economic development programme has already been formed and is in the process of implementation.

«The priorities have been set. Now we are adding two more objects to the list. This is what I am talking about. I do not deny that they are needed. But I want there to be a balance between what we can afford and what we would like,» said Kantor.

This angered Fedir Panchenko, who replied to his colleague.

«If you want to make money on the reconstruction of the 51st lyceum, then we are in a frank, open and public feud,» said Panchenko.

He then called on his colleagues to support the draft decision and put it to a vote. One member of the Budget Committee did not support the decision: only 9 out of 11 members voted in favour (7 — «for», 2 — abstained).

Fedir Panchenko commented on the voting results: «We are finishing the voting. The recommendation is not accepted. Thank you to those who supported it, and to those who did not — do not count on me».

After the vote, Fedor Panchenko wrote to the closed chat of the Lyceum №51 community. He informed the chat participants that the decision had not been adopted and published a list of deputies who did not support it, stating «I ask everyone to remember these names well».

Chat participants suggested collecting signatures in support of the decision.

«I'm still nervous, I'll think about what to do with this next», responded to this proposal Fedir Panchenko.

A screenshot of the correspondence between MP Fedir Panchenko and the participants of the closed chat of the Lyceum No. 51 community

Screenshot of the correspondence between MP Fedir Panchenko and the participants of the closed chat of the lyceum №51 community

Screenshot of the correspondence between MP Fedir Panchenko and participants of the closed chat of the lyceum №51 community

Screenshot of the correspondence between MP Fedir Panchenko and the participants of the closed chat of the lyceum №51 community

Mykolaiv Lyceum No. 51

As you know, it will cost 1 billion hryvnias to build a new lyceum, according to Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych. 6.3 million hryvnias was allocated from the city budget to order a new construction project.

The mayor also said that international donors would not provide such funds, and that the local and state budgets did not have them.

Although the mayor announced the preliminary cost of the lyceum construction, there is no ready-made project. It was supposed to be developed a year ago — by the summer of 2024. However, the development period was delayed — the contractor promised to complete it by the end of March 2025, but again failed to do so.

Books under the rubble in Mykolaiv Lyceum №51, August 2025, photo: NikVesti

Ihor Kopytin spoke out against the idea of building a new lyceum. He believes that it is necessary to rebuild the destroyed building, as it will cost about 30 million hryvnias.

At the same time, Oleksii Savchuk, head of the capital construction department of the Mykolaiv City Council, said that the city would «take measures» to build a new lyceum №51.

Read the NikVesti article «This is our home». How does the destroyed lyceum №51 teach students and is it worth waiting for its reconstruction?»

The construction of Lyceum №51 in Mykolaiv was previously included in the list of five facilities in Mykolaiv region, for the restoration of which 667.9 million hryvnias was allocated from the state budget in 2023. The building of this educational institution was hit by a Russian missile in July 2022.

Initially, the head of the city council's education department, Hanna Lychko, said that school №51 was of great importance to Mykolaiv, so it would be rebuilt. However, the technical council at the city council's capital construction department concluded that the building of Lyceum 51 should be demolished. After that, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych stated that a new, modern institution with shelters for children would be built in its place.

In a comment to NikVesti, Mykolaiv Vice Mayor Anatolii Petrov said that the construction project for Lyceum 51 would be developed by the summer of 2024. Later he said that they want to build three buildings for primary, secondary and senior education.

In March 2024, the Capital Construction Department of the City Council signed a contract for the development of a lyceum construction project for 6.3 million hryvnias.

After the project was developed, it was reported that the construction of the school would be carried out by the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in Mykolaiv region.