The petition, posted on May 18 on the official website of the Kyiv City Council, in which residents of the capital demand to prevent an increase in public transport fares until the end of martial law, gathered the six thousand necessary signatures for consideration in less than a day.
This is reported by Finway
Main Arguments of the Petition Authors
The author of the petition points out that the planned fare increase is not just a correction, but a significant rise in the cost of a basic city service, which will affect every resident of the capital. This will particularly impact Kyiv residents who use public transport daily for commuting to work, school, or errands, as additional expenses could reach hundreds or even thousands of hryvnias each month. The petition emphasizes that the increase is unacceptable during martial law, when many families have unstable incomes, some of which support military personnel, internally displaced persons, or those affected by the war, while the minimum wage remains low.
“This is not about a minor adjustment of the fare, but about a sharp and socially painful increase in the cost of a basic city service. For Kyiv residents who use public transport daily for commuting to work, education, medical treatment, or obtaining administrative services, such an increase will mean an additional financial burden of hundreds or even thousands of hryvnias each month,” commented the author of the petition on the Kyiv authorities’ plans to raise fares.
The initiator of the appeal emphasizes the need to develop an alternative funding model for city transport that takes into account the financial capabilities of the city budget, in order to avoid a sharp increase in fare prices. He stresses that such an increase is premature, socially unjust, and insufficiently justified until martial law is lifted.
City Authorities’ Plans for New Fares
The Kyiv City State Administration has announced that starting from July 15, 2026, the price of a single trip on public transport in Kyiv is planned to rise from the current 8 hryvnias to 30 hryvnias. For passengers who regularly use public transport and purchase tickets via a transport card, discounts are provided: the cost of one trip when buying a monthly pass will be about 23.3–23.6 hryvnias. Students will pay half the cost of a monthly pass, and schoolchildren will have the right to free travel during the school year, with a 75% discount during the summer period.
Additionally, a transfer ticket priced at 60 hryvnias is planned to be introduced, allowing unlimited transfers between the metro and surface transport within 90 minutes. This approach has been borrowed from European cities, but its effectiveness for Kyiv, given the peculiarities of the transport schedule, still needs to be assessed.
The Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, instructed in April to prepare economic calculations regarding the revision of fares. He also noted that transport fares in Kyiv remain the lowest among large cities in Ukraine and were last revised in 2018. The rising costs of fuel, electricity, consumables, and logistics have become the main reason for the fare revision, which must be economically justified. According to Klitschko, this year’s expenses for maintaining city transport exceed 12 billion hryvnias, and transport remains subsidized.