Amid rising food prices, the Finance Department of the Kyiv City State Administration has asked the mayor of the capital, Vitaliy Klitschko, to review public transport fares. The document was published on the Vgorode.ua Telegram channel.
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The letter stated that, according to Article 91 of the Budget Code of Ukraine, regulation of tariffs for passenger transportation in urban transport can be carried out from local budgets. However, due to new financial circumstances, the capital may lose the opportunity to maintain prices at the current level.
In this regard, the Finance Department of the Kyiv City State Administration called on Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko to consider the possibility of increasing transport tariffs, taking into account the changes that have occurred over the past five years.
According to the Kyiv City State Administration, the Kyiv budget for 2025 includes over UAH 9 billion for the Department of Transport Infrastructure, which is 12.3% of the city budget’s general fund expenditures. Of this amount, almost UAH 4.8 billion was allocated to the Kyiv Metro and UAH 4.2 billion to the Kyivpastrans.
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The situation was further complicated by the decision of the Verkhovna Rada of August 20, 2025, according to which all city revenues from August 1 until the end of the year will go to the general fund of the State Budget of Ukraine. This is expected to result in a shortfall of up to UAH 8 billion in the capital's budget.
The document emphasized that this situation creates risks for financing key areas of the city economy, in particular for maintaining passenger transportation tariffs at the pre-war level.
In addition, the Kyiv City State Administration drew attention to inflationary processes, which have significantly increased the need for transportation expenses every year since 2020. For 2026, the declared difference in tariffs is over UAH 13.7 billion. For example, the costs of transporting one passenger, presented in the calculations for the next year, amounted to UAH 44.68 in the metro and UAH 22.62 in Kyivpastrans.
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In this regard, the Finance Department of the Kyiv City State Administration called on Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko to consider the possibility of increasing transport tariffs, taking into account the changes that have occurred over the past five years.
In turn, in response, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko stated that this issue would not be considered until martial law was ended.
“The city is now looking for opportunities not to increase fares. Although many large cities in Ukraine have already done so,” the mayor's statement says.
According to Vitaliy Klitschko, the city mayor, the difference between the current tariff and the economically justified one is UAH 11 billion per year, and another UAH 1 billion is needed for free travel for beneficiaries.
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“The Finance Department, having analyzed the expenses with such a minus from the budget, once again proposed to consider the issue of adjusting the current tariffs,” the mayor said in response to rumors about a fare increase that appeared on social networks.
“In conditions when 8 billion (for Ukrzaliznytsia!) were taken from the capital, the capital's funds will not be enough for the planned subsidy. The central government did everything to take away the ability of cities to maintain public transport fares. And now we are looking for opportunities to correct the situation and maintain the current fares. Because, as I said earlier, we will not consider increasing prices for public transport until the end of the war,” the mayor said.
As you know, passenger transportation tariffs in Kyiv were set more than seven years ago — on July 14, 2018, a single trip costs 8 UAH. The fare was going to be increased to 20 UAH in early 2022, but these plans were thwarted by the war.
At that time, the metro estimated a reasonable fare of 22 UAH, at the end of 2024 the estimate increased to 36.90 UAH.
But for now, prices will remain at the previous level. However, it is too early for Ukrainians to calm down, because a number of utility services are becoming more expensive in the country. In particular, the cost of electricity.
