Andrii Borovyk, Executive Director of Transparency International Ukraine, has filed an e-petition to Kyiv City Council as a Kyiv resident, demanding that Mayor Vitalii Klychko hold a proper public accountability session before the city’s community. Borovyk called on fellow Kyivans to support the initiative, noting that a long-overdue honest conversation between the capital’s leadership and its residents is well past due.

The petition concerns compliance with a legal requirement that the mayor hold at least two open public meetings per year — where residents can ask questions, raise concerns, and submit proposals.

The last such meeting in Kyiv took place in December 2021. Since then, despite the city facing a growing number of challenges, the mayor has not met with residents. 

The e-petition calls for:

• holding an open mayoral report within the timeframe established by law
• publishing the report in written form in advance so residents can review it
• collecting and incorporating questions from Kyivans
• ensuring the event is accessible, including through an online stream and inclusive participation conditions.

“We need to learn to have difficult, grown-up conversations. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the number of challenges facing Kyiv has multiplied. Residents need contact with their authorities and answers to important, even contentious, questions. This is an obligation of those in power, not a choice,” said Andrii Borovyk, the petition’s initiator.

TI Ukraine’s Transparent Cities program consistently finds that in many Ukrainian cities, reporting requirements are either not met at all or fulfilled in a purely formal manner — with no real dialogue with the community. As the capital, Kyiv has the opportunity to set a standard of openness and accountability for other cities. But first, Kyiv’s community must show how to make full use of the tools available to hold power to account. We encourage you to sign the petition and share it with your networks.

The petition can be signed via the following link: https://petition.kyivcity.gov.ua/petition/?pid=14172