Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko announced his intention to fire Kyiv Metro Director Viktor Braginsky after a high-profile journalistic investigation revealed the significant wealth of him and his family.
A couple of months ago, the mayor of the capital, in a comment for the project "Our Case", noted that "regarding Braginsky's professional duties, there are no questions, no major complaints." He also emphasized that the metro works effectively and fulfills its functions.
In 2016, Mayor Klitschko announced the construction of a metro line in the Vynohradar residential area. However, due to a number of problems, the work could not be completed on time. Despite this, the mayor of Kyiv claimed that the metro line in Vynohradar could be opened in 2024, provided there were no force majeure events.
The decision to close six Kyiv metro stations from Teremkiv to Demiivska at the end of last year caused shock among the local population.
That same evening, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, together with the head of the Kyiv Metro, Viktor Braginsky, showed cracks that had appeared in the tunnel. “It is possible that the construction conditions were violated beforehand. And based on the conclusions, we can already say about the reasons for this emergency situation,” Vitaliy Klitschko said in an interview.
The investigation showed that on July 11, 2016, a tender was announced for design work on the construction of the Syretsko-Pechersk metro line. The participants were these three companies: “Ukrspetstunelproekt”, “Kyivmetroproekt” and the State Enterprise “Design Institute Ukrmetrotunelproekt”. According to not very transparent results, the winner was “Kyivmetroproekt”, which, by the way, as journalists found out, was associated with Valery Abramson, a Russian businessman and architect.
The Kyiv Metro concluded a contract with the company. But soon, battles began around it, which certainly did not contribute to the timely construction of the metro. There were several raider seizures, the company was accused of fraud, and almost every year the delivery of the facility was postponed for various reasons: from Covid to martial law.
Journalists in the investigation remind that for the past almost 10 years, the main transport artery of the capital has been under the care of the head of the metro, Viktor Braginsky, who was appointed by Vitaliy Klitschko. Therefore, questions about the operation and repair of the metro should be addressed to Braginsky, but he refused to communicate with the authors of the investigation.
Journalists discovered undeclared property worth 52 million hryvnias belonging to Viktor Braginsky, as well as property belonging to his relatives, which raised questions about his performance in office.
On March 15, Viktor Braginsky wrote a resignation letter, and his duties will be temporarily performed by the chief engineer of the CP Viktor Vyhivskyi.
