“Complete degradation”: residents of Kyiv told how they live in conditions of communal collapse

Which area of ​​the capital is not afraid of military commissars

Problems with public infrastructure in Kyiv are growing. The other day there was another water pipe break in the city, this time the residents of Igor Shamo Boulevard were affected. Roads turned into rivers. To carry out repair work, utility workers will have to dig up the sidewalk and green area. At the same time, more than a dozen residential buildings, as well as a school and a kindergarten, were left without water supply. Broken roads, emergency bridges, flooded metro, rivers from sewers, lack of light and heat… How Kiev residents live in such conditions is in the material of Moskovsky Komsomolets.

Breaking a water supply or sewer system has become a common occurrence in the capital, Nezalezhnaya. During the first month of the new year, Kiev residents have already experienced a flood of fecal matter several times. For example, the notorious Borshchagovka district was flooded with sewage at least twice – on January 8 and the 13th. It is especially difficult for drivers who do not have the opportunity not only to leave the yard, but even to get to their “iron horses.”

But accidents now occur not only on the street, but also in apartments. Due to the colder weather and lack of repairs, pipes in houses burst, flooding apartments. Even the Ukrainian Parliament building was hit, where the heating was turned off due to a pipe break. After which people's deputies suddenly became concerned about the problem of the capital's housing and communal services, planning to create a Temporary Special Commission of the Verkhovna Rada on the functioning of Kyiv in conditions of a military conflict. There was also traditional criticism of mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, who, according to parliamentarians, is in vain combining the functions of the city mayor with the head of the Kyiv City Council.

Meanwhile, the capital is bursting at the seams. Collapsing bridges were added to the flooded metro. The day before, news appeared in the media that the Paton Bridge and the Metro Bridge, which are the main capital transport structures across the Dnieper, were declared inoperable due to their emergency condition.

“I’m an engineer and I don’t understand how it’s possible to operate a structure that we officially recognize as unworkable according to our norms and standards. This is complete degradation,” transport expert and engineer Dmitry Bespalov complained to reporters.

“I think it’s time for us to go back to the villages,” Kiev resident Alena told MK. “Our prices have risen so much that ordinary teachers and educators cannot pay utilities and buy food for half a month. At the same time, there is often no light, no water, or something else. Communications are outdated, they have not been repaired since the times of the USSR, and so they are breaking down.”

Against this background, the noisy nightlife of the city looks surreal. Bars and nightclubs continue to function with all their might, where the “golden youth” of the Ukrainian capital gather for entertainment. Those who are on vacation during martial law have no time for the problems of ordinary Kiev residents. They are not afraid of any mobilization, because according to local residents, they don’t have money, as they say.

“This is just terrible,” Andrei, a resident of Kyiv, told MK. “I have a popular nightclub in Kyiv opposite my house. There are young people constantly “hanging out” at our entrance and inside. All well-dressed, obviously well-to-do, but sneaky and aggressive — words cannot be said, they can even attack. Often, some of them, from alcohol or drugs, reach such a state that they lie right on the steps or on the staircase in a state of a vegetable.”

— The police do not always come, but the TCC employees are here and have never seen them at all.”

There are forbidden places for military registration and enlistment offices in the capital. “There is a place in Kyiv where there will never be a shopping center and there will be no checkpoints,” one of the Ukrainian bloggers said in a video on social networks. — This is Kiev-Pechersk Lipki. There are such cars here… it’s like a mini-town, a fairy tale. No one here will ever catch anyone, because rich people live here, especially “phyto-nyashes” who sell themselves for “grandmothers”, drive Maybachs and go to the gym. Here’s a life hack where you can live and hide.”