Kyiv has been receiving passenger buses as gifts from various countries for a long time, yet a significant portion of this transport remains unused on the city’s routes.
This is reported by Kyiv24
What Happens to Charitable Buses in Kyiv
Local residents have repeatedly pointed out that most of the buses sent to Kyiv as humanitarian aid remain in depots and are not used for passenger transport. According to representatives of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA), there are many reasons for this, but experts are convinced that managing the city’s transport infrastructure requires professionals who genuinely care about the community’s interests.
The municipal enterprise “Kyivpastrans” reported that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, 132 buses received as aid have been added to the enterprise’s fleet. Of these, 32 vehicles were transferred to other organizations, while another 100 remain under the management of “Kyivpastrans”.
Statistics on the Use of Buses from Different Countries
Kyiv received 76 buses from Germany, yet about 20 of them have still not been deployed on routes. Finland donated six buses: four VOLVO models (8500LE, 8700LE, and B12B), of which only three are operational, and two SCANIA K230, which are not used at all. Thus, half of the six Finnish buses are not in service.
Slovakia, specifically the city of Bratislava, provided Kyiv with 22 buses, of which 12 Irisbus Citelis 12 are used in the transport system, while four Irisbus CROSSWAY and several others remain idle — in total, 10 out of 22 buses are not in use.
Croatia donated five VDL BERKHOF AMBASSADOR buses, none of which have hit the routes. Two Polish SOLARIS URBINO buses have also been sitting idle in Kyiv for years.
Overall, of the 100 buses remaining with “Kyivpastrans”, only about 60 have been utilized for city transport. The rest of the vehicles are sitting in depots, gradually losing their technical viability.
It is also worth mentioning the double-decker inclusive buses that Kyiv received from Berlin. The KCSA referred to them as “tourist” buses and did not deploy them on routes, even though in Germany they operated regularly transporting passengers.
“In fact, these buses in Berlin were not tourist buses – they operated on regular routes and transported passengers daily: not tourists, but ordinary residents and visitors to the city. Unfortunately, in Kyiv, the administration has come up with all sorts of excuses as to why they cannot be fully utilized in daily operations,” said Alexander Grechko, co-founder of the initiative “Passengers of Kyiv”.
As a result, the double-decker buses, along with other vehicles donated as charitable aid, remain motionless in the depot, gathering dust and rust.