At a time when soldiers are bravely holding the line of defence at the frontline every day, it is the task of every community to become a reliable rear for our defenders.
Since the first days of the full-scale invasion, the Drohobych territorial community and all conscious residents have united in supporting the Armed Forces and contributing to the approach of Victory.
The Drohobych City Council systematically makes decisions to allocate funds for the needs of the soldiers and organises numerous charity events and fairs in the city to support the defenders.
Thanks to the personal income tax paid to the budget of the Drohobych community from the salaries of military personnel, a significant contribution was made to support the country’s defence capability during the period of Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine.
Thus, in 2022-2023, the budget of the Drohobych City Territorial Community allocated UAH 72.1 million in subventions to support military formations and security forces, which fully satisfied more than 30 requests from the military.
In addition, during the same period, UAH 35.8 million was allocated for the construction and arrangement of shelters, protective structures, and housing for IDPs, and UAH 139.1 million was allocated to create conditions for the treatment, recovery and rehabilitation of persons affected by the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. A significant part of the funds was spent on energy saving measures in healthcare institutions, such as facade insulation and installation of solar panels, which led to the use of alternative energy sources and energy savings in general.
However, due to the withdrawal of the personal income tax on military salaries in 2024 from the community budget, which is about UAH 300.0 million, support for military formations was significantly reduced and their needs were met in the amount of about UAH 10.0 million over 9 months.
At the same time, Drohobych City Council continues to implement many social programmes aimed at supporting socially vulnerable groups of the population, namely social protection of persons with disabilities, persons in difficult life circumstances, defenders of Ukraine, war veterans, families of fallen war heroes and the Heavenly Hundred, repressed persons, preferential travel in public transport, provision of dentures and free medicines to residents of the privileged category of the population, preferential dental prosthetics, free meals for military children in educational institutions, burial of combatants, etc. All of these activities and support were provided at a cost of about UAH 13 million.
In addition, UAH 1.2 million was allocated for the infrastructure of the house where the internally displaced persons are currently living.
At the same time, it should be noted that Drohobych did not receive an educational subvention from the state budget to pay salaries to teachers in the amount of about UAH 14.0 million, so these funds had to be found in the community budget, which led to an additional burden on it.
Also, this year, about UAH 4.0 million was allocated to co-finance the state programme of free meals for pupils in grades 1-4, and UAH 2.0 million to co-finance the state programme for the development of the New Ukrainian School (NUS) and the purchase of housing for orphans.
A significant part of the community’s budget is systematically allocated to financially support critical infrastructure enterprises to ensure uninterrupted water, heat and power supply to the population of Drohobych city territorial community under martial law. This is more than UAH 23.0 million.
The city also takes care of the rehabilitation of soldiers, as the NHSU does not fully cover the costs of medical institutions. Thus, more than UAH 11.0 million was allocated from the community budget to purchase medical equipment for the treatment and rehabilitation of both military personnel affected by the hostilities and civilians.
All of these processes are taking place with a budget solvency index of 0.6 for the Drohobych city territorial community, while the index of, for example, the Sokilnytsia community is 4.
It is worth noting that the Drohobych community has an extensive network of budgetary institutions: there are 62 institutions in the field of education alone, and 37 institutions in culture, which requires constant maintenance. In addition, with the implementation of the territorial reform, 33 villages, in addition to the cities of Drohobych and Stebnyk, became part of the community. This, of course, also affects the city’s budget.
The city’s activity and desire to help the soldiers systematically result in numerous charity events held in Drohobych. For example, the city recently initiated the Million for the Armed Forces campaign, which raised more than UAH 1 million to buy more than 100 drones and 2 cars for the military.