While Kyiv was experiencing hours-long power outages, public transport was operating intermittently, and kindergartens were left without generators, the capital's officials traveled to Berlin for the Kyiv 2025 Investment Forum. The event, organized jointly by the Kyiv City State Administration, the Berlin Senate, and the public organization Impact Force, was fully financed from the capital's budget. Total costs amounted to 7 million hryvnias.
Journalists of the project "In the Shadow of the Chestnut" found out that the Department of Economy and Investments of the Kyiv City State Administration held two tenders: 400 thousand hryvnias were paid for the development of the forum concept, another 6.6 million for organizing the event in Berlin. The event lasted nine hours and included two coffee breaks, lunch, and evening cocktails.
The forum took place on November 12, during the days when Kyiv was experiencing another wave of power outages. Kindergartens lacked generators, and children were forced to sit in warm clothes and even watch cartoons on their mobile phones. Despite this, the city administration delegation went to pre-holiday Berlin, where Christmas markets were already operating at that time.
Together with the mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, several high-ranking representatives of the Kyiv City State Administration traveled to Germany: Director of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies Viktoria Itskovich, Chief Architect of Kyiv and Head of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture Oleksandr Svystunov, Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration Marina Honda, and Kyiv City Council deputy from UDAR Andriy Strannikov.
The forum program also announced Natalia Melnyk, Director of the Department of Economy and Investments of the Kyiv City State Administration. However, the broadcast of the event showed that her speech did not take place - the official was not noticed either among the speakers or in the panel discussions.
Despite the assurances of the Kyiv City State Administration about the "extreme importance" of the forum and its role in attracting investments for the post-war transformation of the capital, the real situation with attracting investors in Kyiv remains critical. As journalists of "In the Shadow of the Chestnut" previously found out, the Kyiv Investment Agency, which should be responsible for the city's investment policy, is unprofitable and actually inactive. During the full-scale war, the enterprise implemented only four projects, and the payroll increased fourfold even with a half-empty staff.
In addition, the agency, which is formally self-financing, still receives funds from the capital's budget, explaining this by "ensuring the proper functioning of the enterprise."
Journalists sent information requests to the Kyiv City State Administration about the cost of the delegation's trip, living conditions, transportation costs, and specific results of the forum. As of the date of publication, no response to the requests has been received.
