As world heavyweight boxing champion, Vitali Klitschko was a beloved figure to Ukrainians. As mayor of Kyiv, his record is much more divisive.
But his career as a politician may end up being a lot shorter and less successful than his career in the boxing ring.
Klitschko retired from boxing in 2013 with 45 wins and only two losses. The next year, he became mayor of the Ukrainian capital with 3 million people. Now, however, he is on the verge of receiving a political knockout from President Volodymyr Zelensky, who seeks to strip him of his political authority.
Ukraine’s capital has a strange system of governance. First, there is the elected mayor, the office Klitschko won in 2014 after the Euromaidan Revolution sent Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych fleeing to Russia. Then, there is the head of the Kyiv City State Administration. This position is equivalent to an oblast governor, and is appointed by the president.
Traditionally, the winner of the mayor’s race is appointed administration head. And, during ex-President Petro Poroshenko’s five years in office, Klitschko held both posts, elected and appointed.
But his tenure as mayor has been marked with controversy, and Klitschko’s record has faced serious criticism.
On the plus side, he’s a popular promoter of the city, always in demand for interviews and guest appearances. He is credited with creating a transparent municipal budget. He removed illegal street kiosks, a common eyesore in Kyiv, and opened a scenic pedestrian bridge overlooking the Dnipro River in downtown Kyiv. Perhaps most importantly, Kyiv remains one of the strongest and most vibrant economic engines of the nation, a magnet for workers from all over the country.
But there are also plenty of downsides to his five years.
The city is still a mess, marked by haphazard construction, bad planning and traffic that is so heavy there is frequent gridlock on the poor roadways.
Both Zelensky and his powerful chief of staff, Andriy Bohdan, are on the offensive.
While visiting a local automobile manufacturing company in Dnipro, Zelensky was told that Kyiv doesn’t allow local companies to participate in tenders. The president swiftly called up Klitschko to express his dissatisfaction with the mayor.
“On how to use our domestic manufacturer, who are a priority to us, we will talk separately,” said Zelensky.
A week later, Bogdan publicly called out Klitschko for closing his eyes on corruption and losing control over the city, allowing powerful developers to take advantage of the mayor.
“He told me he understands that something is going wrong, but can’t do anything about it,” Bohdan said. Klitschko has accused Bohdan of lying and threatened to take him to court.
Illegal construction
Klitschko certainly had the popular support to accomplish a lot. He has won two mayoral elections, in 2014 and 2015, and his party also received a majority of seats in the city council.
Everything started out well enough. In his first two years as mayor, Klitschko removed more than 7,000 illegal street kiosks in the city center, according to mayor’s office estimates. Such businesses were a major annoyance in the city, a ubiquitous sight at every bus stop and subway entrance.
“It was a very risky and seemingly unpopular decision, yet it eventually paid off,” says outgoing lawmaker and Kyiv native Ihor Lutsenko. The victory wasn’t complete, however: Illegal kiosks outside the city center were left untouched.
Activists protest along the central thoroughfare in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on March 5, 2019. The sign at right reads: “Don’t trash my city.” (Volodymyr Petrov)
However, by mid‑2017, Klitschko became the target of journalistic investigations over his alleged ties with Kyiv real estate developers engaged in much grander-scale construction than kiosks.
In September 2017, Schemes, the investigative unit of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, caught Klitschko traveling on a private jet with now-outgoing lawmaker Maksym Mykytas, the former head of state-owned development company UkrBud, and notorious developer Vadym Stolar, who was recently elected to parliament on the pro-Russian Opposition Platform — For Life party list.
Klitschko claimed that he ran into Mykytas on the streets of Naples while on vacation and that the lawmaker offered him a flight to Kyiv. The mayor said he paid for the flight.
“If I travel in a passenger plane with 150 other people, it doesn’t mean I have business ties with them,” responded Klitschko.
Mykytas, who was then a member of Klitschko’s UDAR party in the city council, gained attention in 2015 when UkrBud began constructing two skyscrapers 68 meters from the Dnipro River. According to Ukraine’s water code, construction less than 100 meters from major rivers is banned.
However, while a number of city officials agreed that the construction was illegal, Klitschko didn’t see any violations. He said that the water near the site wasn’t actually the Dnipro, but rather a small tributary river connected to the Dnipro. In that case, the protected area was just 50 meters.
Activist Georgiy Mogylnyy, who petitioned against the construction, told the Kyiv Post that, when Klitschko arrived to the site and was confronted by protestors, the mayor responded that Mykytas assured him that the construction was legal.
Despite major protests, the skyscrapers were completed in 2018.
Mykytas didn’t respond to the Kyiv Post’s request for comment.
In 2018, Mykytas took on a new project, winning the right to build a new bridge in the Shuliavka neighborhood after the previous bridge, which was in need of reconstruction, crumbled.
Schemes reported that the tender for constructing the new bridge was won by a company linked to Mykytas for Hr 600 million ($23 million), while the tender itself was staged between two companies, both connected to the lawmaker.
These two companies were later fined Hr 150 million ($5.5 million) by Ukraine’s Anti-Monopoly Committee for collusion concerning the reconstruction of a hospital in Kyiv. The companies were also banned for three years from participating in tenders. The companies are appealing the decision.
However, the bridge construction was not stopped.
Bad infrastructure
Other than the Shuliavka Bridge, there are a number of bridges in Kyiv that are desperately in need of renovation. Along with poor roads and inadequate numbers of parking spaces, Kyiv’s infrastructure seems to be perpetually at at breaking point. Add to that list unreliable water supplies, heating and electrical outage and a polluted main river, and urban living in Kyiv seems increasingly far from perfect.
But none of that has stopped Klitschko from scoring populist points with flashy projects. On May 26, the mayor opened a new pedestrian bridge in downtown Kyiv. “It’s truly a unique project,” he said, while jumping on the bridge with his brother. Later that day, the tempered glass paneling on the floor began to crack.
But the bridge’s quality was not the only concern. In early May, a Swiss development company, Leuppi & Schafroth Architekten, accused Kyiv officials of copying their project plans created in 2013.
The company came second in the 2013 tender to construct the bridge in Kyiv, yet the bridge itself was built only six years later, after a new tender was held and a project similar to that of the Swiss company won.
“The results shocked us,” said Stephanie M. Schafroth, co-founder of the Swiss development company, adding that the firm wasn’t paid for their project.
Schafroth also said that the construction of their project would cost the city only $6 million, compared to the $10 million the city ultimately spent on the winning project.
The city administration denied any wrongdoing, stating that the Swiss company’s initial bid was more expensive than the eventual winner’s bid.
Smart city and e-budget
While journalists allege that he has ties to construction firms, Klitschko has managed to distance himself from major scandals, choosing to focus his attention on innovation and e-governance.
In 2016, Klitschko launched the city budget initiative, making public all city procurement and spending. Today, anyone can track city revenues and spending. In 2019, net income amounted to Hr 57 billion ($2.2 billion).
The initiative also allows citizens to put forward projects for the city council to vote on. Around 600 projects have been accepted since 2016, with a total of just under 200 projects completed since then.
A year later, the mayor’s office introduced Kyiv Smart City, a program allowing Kyiv residents to register online petitions and track city government spending, while also allowing residents to sign their kids up for kindergarten and schedule appointments with doctors.
The initiative also introduced a single transit card, allowing residents to travel cash free on the metro and buses.
Global picture
Klitschko’s efforts to refurbish parks and introduce e-governance weren’t meant only for locals. The mayor frequently spoke of his intention to improve Kyiv’s standing in global rankings and attract more tourists and business in the process.
“Over the past two years, we have held very important events of a truly European quality,” Klitschko said on May 18, during the celebration of Europe Day in downtown Kyiv.
During his tenure, Kyiv successfully hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017 and the UEFA Champions League soccer final in 2018.
“Kyiv is establishing itself as a European capital,” Klitschko added.
In fact, in the 2018 Most Livable Cities Index by The Economist, Kyiv improved its standing, rising 13 spots to 118th place out of 140 in total.
In response to the Economist ranking, Klitschko accused journalists of underreporting the good news to the public.
However, other global rankings are less optimistic. According to Mercer, a leading HR consulting firm, Kyiv ranks as the 173rd most livable city, the second lowest in Europe. Numbeo, a popular crowd-source database, ranks Kyiv as the 192nd most livable city, placing it one spot below Moscow, yet far below other European capitals.
However, lawmaker Lutsenko says that, overall, Klitschko is seen as a good mayor by city residents and he will most likely keep his post as mayor in case of snap local elections.
“The fact that the current authorities are willing to remove him (from heading the city administration), proves that they are unlikely to win over him during elections.”
