MYKOLAIV: For the mayor of the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv , wartime crises like water and power outages and a crumbling local economy are short-term obstacles to a long-term plan. Oleksandr Sienkevych believes that reforms and accountability, including overhauling how public firms are run, are critical to the Black Sea port's future as Ukraine begins its long and potentially difficult path to the European Union . "We're doing this for our reputation .
.. to make it transparent," two-term mayor Sienkevych told Reuters in a recent interview in Mykolaiv, a regional capital of around 4,00,000 people.
Just 40 miles from the front line, the city is in a dire situation. It has been without clean tap water for more than two years after Russian forces destroyed important infrastructure. Authorities have set up distribution stations throughout the city providing filtered drinking water and have also managed to pump non-potable water into pipes, though its uses are limited.
"You shouldn't even wash your dishes with it," said 75-year-old Liubov Ivanovna, as she moved around water containers in her courtyard one recent morning. Beyond the water crisis, local schools have been in online-only mode for four years. The city budget lost around half of its revenue because of the war , and the port has been closed since February 2022.
The streets, like others across Ukraine, are plunged into darkness daily after Russian airstrikes that wrought havoc on Ukraine's energy system. Last Frida.