Government to allocate over 368 million hryvnias to create accessible routes in communities

The Government supported Minregion’s proposal to include the “Creation of accessible routes in settlements” programme in the list of public investment programmes. This will enable communities to attract state funding for accessible routes and scale up the “Movement without Barriers” project launched in 2025.

The funding will require co-financing from the local budget of between 50% and 80%. The share will depend on the community’s financial capacity.

The focus is primarily on continuous routes connecting housing, streets, public transport, hospitals, educational institutions, workplaces, administrative services and public spaces.

“The pilot stage showed that when we work on a route comprehensively, the result is not individual accessible elements but a route that a person can use without barriers every day. We are now scaling up this approach. State resources will primarily go to critical social infrastructure — hospitals, schools, kindergartens and other facilities providing access to basic services. Communities will finance the other components from local budgets and other sources. This changes the very logic of accessibility funding. State funds are combined with community and business resources, and the result should be not an individual accessible facility but a complete route that a person can use every day,” emphasised Vitalii Bezghin, Minister for Communities, Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine.

Which communities can receive funding?

To participate in the selection, a community must meet the following criteria and have:

▪️ an approved accessible route targeted by the public investment project;

▪️ apartment buildings included in the route;

▪️ accessible public transport operating along the route, or procurement of such transport included in the project;

▪️an accessibility commissioner and a structural unit responsible for implementing the route;

▪️ a local accessibility council.

Priority will be given to routes for which design documentation has already been developed and approved or accessibility work has already begun.

Projects will be submitted through the Digital Integrated Information and Analytical System for Preparation and Monitoring of Public Investment Projects and Programmes (DREAM) and included in the community’s single public investment portfolio. This will make it possible to see community needs, project readiness, funding sources and expected results and make comprehensive funding decisions.