Deputy Mayor of Mykolaiv refused to answer questions about his profile: «This is for Lychko»

Deputy Mayor of Mykolaiv Anatolii Petrov and Head of the Education Department Hanna Lychko, collage by NikVesti

Deputy Mayor of Mykolaiv Anatolii Petrov, who is in charge of the social and humanitarian sphere, refused to answer questions from journalists directly related to his area of responsibility.

Today, on 10 September, a journalist from NikVesti addressed the deputy mayor of Mykolaiv with several questions.

The website of the Mykolaiv City Council published a draft decision on determining the opening hours of pre-school education institutions (kindergartens) in the city. We asked Anatolii Petrov to explain the essence of this document, to which he said he did not know and advised us to ask the head of the education department, Hanna Lychko.

«Call Lychko, call Lychko. I'm not ready,» Anatolii Petrov said.

It should be noted that this draft decision stipulates that kindergartens are open from 1 September to 31 May, and in the summer, «there may be additional preschool education institutions».

Draft decision of the Mykolaiv City Council on the working hours of kindergartens in the city

Our second question concerned the situation with the quality of children's meals in Mykolaiv schools, which has been the subject of several posts by parents on Facebook.

«I won't comment on it,» said the deputy mayor.

This is how children are fed in Mykolaiv schools, 14 million hryvnias will be spent from the budget by the end of the year, photo: Hanna Shevchenko

Earlier, NikVesti received information from readers that in one of Mykolaiv's schools, parents paid about 1,000 hryvnias for textbooks and «donated» to repair stairs. We asked Anatolii Petrov to tell us whether and in what form school or class funds could exist, whether it was possible to collect money from parents for textbooks, repairs in educational institutions, household chemicals or the purchase of equipment, etc. But he refused to answer this question either.

«I`m not going to comment. I'm not ready to say. This is a question to Lychko,» said Anatolii Petrov.

«But you are a specialised deputy. The parents of these children read us, and maybe you should explain what you can and cannot raise money for,» the journalist asked.

«Let me check with Lychko and then comment...,» said Anatolii Petrov.

The editorial office of NikVesti tried to ask the head of the Mykolaiv Education Department, Hanna Lychko, these questions, but she did not answer the journalists' calls.

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According to the Mykolaiv Centre for Investigative Journalism Nikcenter, over 7 months of 2025, Vice Mayor Anatolii Petrov received ₴627,800 from the Mykolaiv budget, including

• ₴130 thousand within the official salary;
• ₴218 thousand in bonuses, including for high achievements;
• ₴76.8 thousand of financial assistance for health improvement;
• ₴10 thousand sick pay;
• ₴7.5 thousand for business trips;
• ₴67 thousand in holiday pay;
• ₴118 thousand in bonuses.

On average, Deputy Mayor Anatolii Petrov received about ₴90,000 in monthly budgetary payments from January to July.

According to his declaration for 2024, Anatolii Petrov earned ₴933,100 as deputy mayor of Mykolaiv for humanitarian affairs, which is an average of ₴77,700 per month.