In the Kharkiv region, more than 20 underground schools will be completed by the end of the year, while new contractors will be sought for four problematic sites.
This was announced at a press conference by the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, Oleh Syniehubov.
“We currently have 43 schools under implementation. Two of them are being built with funds from international partners, namely Lithuania. Five schools are being built with funding from the Buffett Foundation. We are implementing 36 schools using state budget funds. More than 20 will be completed by the end of this year, and the rest next year,” Syniehubov said.
The head of the regional administration noted that it will take two to three weeks at the beginning of the year to commission the completed schools. After that, children will be able to begin in-person or hybrid learning. Landscaping around the underground schools will be carried out later, when weather conditions allow.
“A readiness level of 95% allows a facility to be put into operation. When favorable weather conditions arrive, we will complete the improvement of the surrounding area,” Syniehubov said.
In June, plans were announced to complete 38 underground schools by the end of the year. According to the head of the administration, some projects faced funding shortages, while in others contractors failed to meet requirements.
“The reasons for non-completion are as follows. The first is insufficient funding. These projects will be included in next year’s budget; where the level of completion exceeds 60%, it will take a maximum of three to four months to finish them, by the end of April or May. Relevant agreements have already been reached with the Ministry of Education regarding continued funding. There are also four difficult sites where we are in the process of terminating contracts at our initiative. The contractors frankly failed to cope with the volumes and tasks assigned to them,” Syniehubov said.
According to him, new tenders for the construction of these four schools will be announced in January. Under the terms, they are to be completed during 2026.
