Restoration of the Catholic Church of St. Nicholas in Kyiv after the fire will cost at least UAH 75 million, according to preliminary estimates, Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko said.
“According to preliminary estimates, the restoration will require UAH 75 million. The state will allocate the rest of the necessary funds to the amount raised by the business. That is, it is a unique case of public-private partnership,” Tkachenko wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to him, the funds transferred by business representatives will go to emergency work. They are expected to begin in mid-October.
As reported, on Friday evening, mayor of the Ukrainian capital Vitali Klitschko wrote in the Telegram channel that the church of St. Nicholas caught fire in the center of Kyiv. The fire broke out between the first and second floors and quickly spread to the roof of the building. Rescuers said that the area of the fire was 80 square meters, the fire damaged the body. According to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the building was not badly damaged. Late in the evening the fire was extinguished, none of the people were injured. Later, the Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko said that the fire destroyed a unique organ, which was located in the building.
St. Andrew’s Church has reopened in Kyiv after almost five years of restoration work, according to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.
“The St. Andrew’s Church Museum is reopened. The restoration of one of the most famous baroque monuments of Ukraine took place in three stages: strengthening the hill; restoration of the external facades; work on the interiors,” the Ministry of Culture reported on Facebook.
The ministry said also that from December 15, everyone will be able to see the unique iconostasis as it was at the time of the author of the project, the architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli.
As reported, on December 2, the press service of the Ministry of Culture announced the opening of St. Andrew’s Church online on January 12, the first service will be held in the church on December 13.
It is reported that the aim of the restoration was the desire to reveal the original solutions and vision of the architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, whose 320th birthday is celebrated this year.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Ukraine’s international partners and business representatives to become involved in the implementation of infrastructure and social projects in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions affected by the armed conflict. During his speech at the Ukrainian Lunch in Munich, the head of state said that a global fund had been created to restore the Donbas infrastructure in Ukraine.
“It combines two ‘windows’. The first is for international partners, organizations and foundations. The second is for the Ukrainian fund, which will attract funds from the private sector and individual donors,” the head of state said.
According to the president, the key priorities of the fund are large infrastructure projects, work with local business and its affordable crediting, care for the least protected groups of the population, overcoming the consequences of the war – with a focus on youth, women, children and veterans.
“For the first time such a fund is administered jointly by the World Bank, the Office of the President and the Government of Ukraine,” Zelensky stressed.
In addition, the head of state told about the plans to establish the Ministry of Reintegration and Restoration of Donbas.
“I urge our international partners to join and start fundraising for the reconstruction and reintegration of Donbas together with me,” the president summarized.
On Friday, November 29, at 13.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference entitled “From Robbery of Foreign Investors to Restoration of Confidence in Ukraine” on regular robberies of foreign investors by a criminal gang which included employees of security agencies in 2015-2018. Participants: Chairman of NGO Association for Protection of Foreign Investment Anatoliy Velymovsky; co-founder of NGO Association for Protection of Foreign Investment, Head of non-governmental organization for protection of public order and state border of Ukraine “Left Bank – Kyiv BTO” Taras Moskaliuk; German citizen, investor, owner of BioTexCom Albert Totchilovski; Lithuanian citizen, private investor Virmantas Vildziunas (8/5a Reitarska Street). Registration requires press accreditation.
The reform support team at the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine has reported on the results of a preliminary feasibility study for a project to restore the runway and build a terminal at Bila Tserkva airport with an estimated investment of EUR59 million. “Getting the status of international by Bila Tserkva has already been initiated, which is expected next year. The Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine provides comprehensive support and assistance in realizing the potential of the Bila Tserkva aerodrome, which is provided for by the Aviation Strategy of Ukraine until 2030,” adviser to the relevant minister Oleksandr Klitin said.
The report also states that the reform support team has already held talks on the development of the airport based on the results of the feasibility study with Finpoint, Millennium Capital, Capital Times and the airport management.
The feasibility study for the airport of Bila Tserkva was developed by independent international consultants under the technical assistance program of the European Commission for Ukraine. According to the evaluation of experts from the ASSIST project, the total cost of priority investments to restore the runway and build the terminal will be about EUR59 million. The modernization of Bila Tserkva aviation complex is a pilot project of this program. ASSIST is a research project co-funded by the European Commission DG MOVE under FP7 (the EU’s Seventh Framework Program for Research). The ASSIST project has been lasting for more than 30 months, starting in April 2011. Scientific research is carried out by a consortium of six partners with the participation of NEA (the Netherlands), TRT (Italy), ProgTrans (Switzerland), FOMTERV (Hungary), CNRS-LET (France), and Fraunhofer-ISI (Germany).
