Mykolaiv has already burned 200 garbage bins — ₴3 million will be spent on new ones

Unidentified persons set fire to a container in the centre of Mykolaiv in the summer of 2023, photo: Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych

As of September 2025, unknown persons have already burned 200 plastic containers for collecting household waste. Currently, the utility company «Mykolaivkomuntrans» is purchasing new ones — iron ones.

Andrii Vetsalo, director of the utility «Mykolaivkomuntrans», told NikVesti.

In total, the company is purchasing 200 iron containers for 3.1 million hryvnias, according to the ProZorro public procurement system. They are to be delivered to the company by 30 September 2025.

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Since March 2025 alone, unknown persons have burned 51 plastic containers for collecting household waste, said the director of «Mykolaivkomuntrans».

«I cannot say how the containers will be distributed to the districts. They will be installed instead of plastic ones. We need this because since March alone, 51 containers have been burnt. We held a tender and I think we will have the containers by the end of September. I don't know the exact location of the containers, but they will appear where we lose them or where they leave the government,» said Andrii Vetsalo.

He explained that the company is currently purchasing iron garbage containers, as they will be the most reliable in case of fires.

«Why not plastic ones? Because they burn very strongly. I don't know if it's sabotage or just careless people. But most likely, they are burning them for a reason. Because since 2023, more than 200 containers have been burnt,» explained Andrii Vetsalo.

According to him, the police do not open proceedings as a result of container arsons, but these losses over five years are estimated at 700,000 hryvnias.

«We go through the whole procedure: we submit information to the State Emergency Service and the police. But the police do not want to open a case because it is not a significant loss, and in total, since 2020, the amount has already reached 700,000 hryvnias. No one is looking for anyone yet,» added Andrii Vetsalo.

Arson of garbage bins in Mykolaiv

At the beginning of 2023, the Department of Housing and Communal Services of the City Council signed an agreement with the company «Ukrresurs» to purchase a thousand garbage containers for 7.2 million hryvnias. The cost of one container was 7,200 hryvnias.

In the spring of the same year, in the Korabelnyi district of the city, utilities partially replaced old galvanised garbage containers with new plastic ones.

And in the summer of 2023, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych reported that 17 new plastic containers for household waste collection had been burned in the city in two months.

In total, during 2023, Mykolaiv residents burned 48 plastic containers for household waste collection.

In 2024 , unknown persons destroyed another 68 garbage containers of the company «Mykolaivkomuntrans». The damage was estimated at 472,300 hryvnias.