The Kyiv authorities may face the biggest financial crisis in the field of public works in recent years: the capital's budget risks losing billions of hryvnias due to mass lawsuits from entrepreneurs whose temporary structures were dismantled from 2024 to 2025. The reason is the decision of the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal, which upheld the verdict of the first instance and declared illegal the key points of the Kyiv City Council's decision No. 915/8881, by which the city actually launched a large-scale "cleansing" of the public works sector.
The court decision questioned the legality of the demolitions that Kyiv carried out under the guise of regulating street trading. Clauses 6.4, 6.5 and 6.6, which prohibited the extension of permits for kiosks in various districts of the capital, were declared illegal. This means that entrepreneurs whose vehicles were demolished have the right to demand compensation for the destroyed business. According to estimates by public associations, the total damage could reach several billion hryvnias.
Representatives of the NGO “Union of Entrepreneurs of Ukraine”, who won the case, emphasize: the dismantlings continued according to a procedure based on the illegal provisions of the Kyiv City Council’s decision. Entrepreneurs were first canceled their passports or share participation agreements, after which the improvement inspectors demanded that they remove the kiosks. Those who refused had their structures dismantled forcibly. Now these actions may become the basis for large financial claims against the city authorities.
In the capital over the past year and a half, more than two thousand vehicles have been dismantled. The book value of each kiosk is about 250–500 thousand hryvnias, but entrepreneurs estimate the losses using a commercial formula — as the loss of a full-fledged business. According to human rights activists, the average compensation for one point can be from 20 to 50 thousand dollars, which poses a threat of billions of dollars in costs for the Kyiv budget.
A new wave of legal attacks is already underway: in parallel, the court is considering a lawsuit by the NGO "Kyiv City Committee for the Salvation of Business", which challenges not only the provisions on the TC, but also other norms of Kyiv City Council decisions that affected the field of street trading. In particular, it concerns violations of land legislation, excess of authority of city council commissions, and discrimination against entrepreneurs who worked under binding passports.
At Khreshchatyk, 36, they are not yet commenting on the defeat in court, but are preparing changes to the scandalous decision. The Department of Territorial Control has already registered a project that formally softens the rules: it is proposed not to dismantle vehicles after the expiration of permits, as well as to expand the list of objects that can be placed through Prozorro. However, human rights activists point out that these proposals do not solve systemic problems and do not restore the violated rights of entrepreneurs whose kiosks have already been demolished.
The street trading sector in Kyiv has been plagued by conflicts, high-profile accusations of corruption, and lack of transparency in decisions for years. The current scandal has only exacerbated the confrontation between small businesses and city authorities. Entrepreneurs say they are ready to seek full compensation for the losses, and experts warn that if they lose in court, the Kyiv City Council could lose more than it planned to earn from the vehicle parking reform.
