Vinnytsia Territorial Community

History

Since its founding in 1363, the city on the Buh has played an important role in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and was one of the outposts of the border region of Podillia. In 1640, Vinnytsia received the Magdeburg rights and develops the traditions of local self-government to this day.

The oldest church buildings in the city (17th-18th centuries) are concentrated around the Walls architectural complex, in particular the Jesuit Monastery, the former Dominican Church (now the Holy Transfiguration Church) and the Capuchin Monastery (currently the Church of the Holy Virgin Mary of the Angels).

Today, Vinnytsia has 202 monuments of cultural heritage, including 118 monuments of architecture, 45 monuments of history, and 6 monuments of archeology. 14 monuments have the status of national significance.

At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the city underwent rapid economic development thanks to trade and the railway, as well as the activities of the mayor Mykola Ovodov and the architect Hryhoriy Artynov. The center of Vinnytsia received a modernist look with a water tower as its main visual symbol, still recognizable today. In 1917-1920, the city became the temporary capital of the Ukrainian People’s Republic three times, and since 1992 it has been the center of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Vinnytsia is connected with the lives of figures of world significance: the writer Mykhailo Kotsyubynskyi and the surgeon Mykola Pirogov, whose estates now function as museum complexes.

In terms of tourism, the city is primarily known for Europe’s largest light and music floating fountain. There are also museums with unique collections (Sarmatian jewels, transport models, Ukrainian stamps, old watches), sightseeing trams, various water activities (gondolas, motorboats, SUP-boards). The Ukrainian section of the Way of St. Jacob starts from Vinnytsia. Gastronomy is actively developing based on the traditions of Podillia cuisine. Also, various confectionery products are made here.

Economy and Welfare

Vinnytsia is a modern city with a rapidly developing economy. The city has a long industrial tradition, a powerful educational base, scientific schools working in the field of information technology, engineering, and medicine.

A significant part of the enterprises on the territory of the Vinnytsia community are involved in such areas as mechanical engineering, food industry, and renewable energy.

The community also has such leading companies as the Polish-Ukrainian enterprise Barlinek Invest (sawmill and planing production), Volodarka (light industry), Joint Ukrainian-Spanish enterprise Sperco Ukraine (chemical and pharmaceutical industry), PODILLIA Concern, BVV-Bud Limited Liability Company, Vinproektbud Limited Liability Company (construction of residential and non-residential buildings) and others.

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Vinnytsia has been in the top three cities where the largest number of relocated enterprises have been registered. More than 350 business entities from other regions of Ukraine have officially registered with the Vinnytsia Urban Territorial Community.

In general, various sectors of the community economy continue to be filled with new businesses and new jobs, particularly green jobs. Vinnytsia supports Ukraineэs post-war recovery plan based on “greener than before” clean energy and stimulates local enterprises. Some companies in the community produce green goods and provide green services. They minimize air, water, noise pollution, prevent the depletion of natural resources, etc., thus contributing to the preservation and restoration of the environment.

Comfort and high quality of life of residents is one of the priorities of the Vinnytsia Urban Territorial Community. Therefore, the community has 12 health care facilities, including 5 centers of primary medical and sanitary care, 63 preschool education institutions in which more than 17,000 young residents are educated, 53 general secondary education institutions where about 46,000 children study, 25 institutions of higher education, 2 of which have been relocated here since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, 7 sports schools and 6 art schools, 900 groups of various focuses, cultural institutions, including clubs.

Community and War

From the first days of the war, the Vinnytsia community became a refuge for tens of thousands of people who were forced to leave their homes, and hundreds of enterprises focusing their efforts on helping. In cooperation with the International Humanitarian Coordination Headquarters, more than 23,000 families were provided with food kits. The community opened a city center for the provision of charitable aid to displaced persons from the territories of Ukraine where hostilities are taking place, a humanitarian Center issued necessary things for displaced persons (70,000 persons have been provided with various things so far), later – the humanitarian and information hub I am Mariupol, the Coordination Center for the Support of Residents of the Occupied Kherson Region Kherson is Ukraine, the hub My Luhansk Region, etc.

The Vinnytsia Urban Territorial Community was the first in Ukraine to establish cooperation with the UN mission, as a result of which 17,000 families received financial assistance in the total amount of UAH 102.7 million. Assistance was also provided by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNICEF, SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine, InterSOS, Doctors Without Borders and other international foundations, charities, and public organizations. The Polish twin city of Kielce also joined in, thanks to which 300 families with children received humanitarian aid.

The residents of Vinnytsia did not stand aside – almost 600 residents of the community accommodated more than 1,500 internally displaced persons in their own homes. They also participated in weaving camouflage nets, making trench candles, unloading and organizing humanitarian aid, etc.

The geographical location of the community did not protect it from destruction. On March 6, 2022, Vinnytsia International Airport was seriously damaged due to Russian missile fire.

On July 14 of the same year, Russian troops attacked the city with cruise missiles, taking 29 lives, including 4 children, and injuring 219 people. As a result, 128 residential buildings, a maternity hospital, 2 hospitals, a lyceum, 3 kindergartens, 2 cultural institutions, a temple, architectural and historical monuments of local and national significance were damaged.

Despite everything, the Vinnytsia community continues to be a reliable home front. And some of those who were in service of the community are now in service of Ukraine. Serhii Pasichnyk, who used to work for the good of the community in the department of communal economy and improvement of the Vinnytsia City Council, is currently back at the front. Ivan Ivashyna, a former physical education teacher at the lyceum, changed his sports uniform to a military uniform. Viacheslav, who saved lives before the war as a paramedic, saves lives now as a combat medic.

In addition, within the limits of its powers, the Vinnytsia City Council, on behalf of the residents of the community, actively and regularly supports the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, law enforcement agencies, the State Emergency Service, territorial defense units and other military formations in all possible ways, including financially. In 2023, the total amount of allocated funds reached UAH 555.7 million.

When generating the budget of the Vinnytsia Urban Territorial Community for 2024, they focused on key priorities – security and defense (support of defense units of various structures and voluntary formations of territorial defense, other military formations), sustainability (strengthening the economic independence of the community and support of critical infrastructure), care (ensuring social support of the Defenders of Ukraine, their family members, socially vulnerable segments of the population, children who need special attention). It is planned to direct the lion’s share of the budget (UAH 3.0 billion) to these priorities at the expense of the community’s own revenues in 2024.

People of the Community

Mayor Serhii Morhunov has been heading the Vinnytsia Urban Territorial Community for almost 10 years. The people of Vinnytsia entrusted him with the management of the city twice.

During his term in office, Vinnytsia began manufacturing its own VinWay trams and VinLine trolleybuses; three main streets were reconstructed: Kosmonavtiv Avenue, Zamostyanska and Batozka Streets; 40 educational institutions were insulated; four industrial parks were created and construction of the Krystal Technology Center was started.

Also during this time, Vinnytsia was the first in the post-Soviet space to receive the European Energy Award and recently joined the European Green Course and is rebuilding its infrastructure taking into account decarbonization measures.

Starting from 2009, the city of Vinnytsia introduced the program “Vinnytsia as a child-friendly city” aimed at improving the lives of children. The Vinnytsia community joined the UNICEF international initiative “A community friendly to children and youth” as a candidate in 2018 and won the prestigious international award “Child Friendly Cities Inspire Awards” among the world’s most child-friendly cities in 2019.

Due to the large number of internally displaced persons and relocated enterprises, new programs are being introduced in the community to support business, infrastructure is being developed in industrial parks, and full support in the implementation of their projects has been created for large investors.

At the same time, the community continues to implement security measures: anti-radiation shelters are being built near six schools and two kindergartens, the external threat alert network is being strengthened, and automatic locks are being installed on the doors of the simplest shelters which are opened during air raids (already more than 500 ones).

During the year, the community accumulated generators, which are a source of uninterrupted power supply in the event of the destruction of the main power supply nodes. International partners, including the UN IOM, USAID, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany and others, help Vinnytsia in this.

Investments are made in municipal infrastructure medical, educational, sports, cultural facilities and municipal digitalization; in the basic infrastructure for the development of the economy, improvement of the business environment and support for tourism (water supply and drainage, energy, heat, gas supply, accompanying logistics), etc.

Development Strategy

Vinnytsia is a city that has been repeatedly recognized as Ukraine’s most comfortable city for living. In particular, thanks to thorough strategic planning.

In 2021, the Development Strategy of the Vinnytsia Urban Territorial Community until 2030 was approved. It is focused on a breakthrough in development and the ability to be a competitive community at the national and regional levels.

The main idea is that Vinnytsia in 2030 is a magnet city which you want to live and work in and return to.

Strategy 3.0 defines 6 priorities for the development of the city. The first one is digitization of municipal space. For its implementation, the community has already implemented over 50 online services in Transparent Offices and the “smart” Call Center (more than 44 thousand people used it), an automated system for accounting for fares in public transport in the city. It has also extended the use of e-tickets to all public transport in the city, launched the mobile application VinnytsiaTransport and the municipal chatbot SVOI (in Viber and Telegram) with the assistance of the EGAP project etc.

The second priority is an integrated community: quality and affordable municipal services for all. For its implementation, the information button “Veteran” was introduced in all branches of the Administrative Services Centers for the possibility of priority service. Also, the “Mobile Administrator” service was resumed (administrator house-calls). The UTOH service was introduced in the Centers (a video communication system for remote communication with a sign language interpreter). Veterans’ assistants started their work within the pilot project “Veteran’s Assistant” etc.

The third priority is municipal investment. They approved the program for promoting investment in the community for 2024-2026, developed the investment passport of the community, created 4 industrial parks, concluded cooperation agreements with enterprises that plan to place investments in the territory of the community. They continue to create modern information technology for life, business and tourism.

The fourth priority is green economy and smart specialization. To do this, the community provides financial assistance to local entrepreneurs in the form of partial compensation for the costs of installed renewable energy sources (since 2023, 12 economic entities have already taken advantage of this opportunity), encouraging the installation of solar panels on the roofs of residential and commercial facilities. The Program for the construction of solar power plants for self-consumption of electricity by communally owned facilities for 2023-2027 was approved.

The fifth priority is an accessible, safe and ecologically clean environment. On the way to the green transition, the Green Course of Vinnytsia was announced, the Concept of the Development of Small Rivers of Vinnytsia – 2035 (ecological project for the preservation of the city’s water bodies) was approved, public monitoring of air quality was launched using a special online map, and the service “Accessibility of the city’s street network” was created on the city’s Geoportal to report the shortcomings of the city’s infrastructure from the point of view of people with disabilities, parents with strollers, or cyclists. The cleaning of the Southern Buh River continues, sidewalks are adapted to the needs of people with limited mobility, the transport fleet is updated with low-floor VinLine trolleybuses, etc.

The sixth priority is a pulsating city. The community opened Visit Vinnytsia tourist hub, joined the Vinnytsia wine culture days Wine Days, launched the project Camino Podolico – the Podillia Way of St. Jacob based on the model of the world-famous Camino hiking route de Santiago, took part in the international gastronomic fair  Foire de Dijon (France), where Ukraine was represented for the first time, developed the city gastronomic map Tasty Vinnytsia and, of course, approved the Strategy for the Development of Culture of the Vinnytsia Urban Territorial Community until 2025. These are only part of the implemented projects and activities that contribute to the transformation of Vinnytsia into a vibrant, dynamic, cultural and business center.

The achievements of the community, recognized by the international community, are a confirmation of effective strategic development. Thus, Vinnytsia was Ukraine’s first to announce a Green Course following the example of the European Green Course with the aim of achieving a green transition and climate neutrality. It also became the first city in Eastern Europe to receive the European Energy Award (2015), confirming it in 2019. The next goal is to receive the “gold” European Energy Award.

Vinnytsia is also actively developing twinning and partnership relations with cities all over the world. These relationships have created cases of successful collaboration over recent years that allow the city to facilitate activities in support of community priorities and ambitions. Today, Vinnytsia attaches great importance to the fact that partnerships with cities have a strategic focus and help the community achieve key strategic goals in all areas of development.

List of Sources

The sources from which the information/photo were taken are indicated here

• Official website of the Vinnytsia City Council
• Development strategy of the Vinnytsia  Uban Territorial Community until 2030 – Strategy 3.0
• Vinnytsia City Council Facebook page 
• Serhii Morhunov’s Facebook page
• Vinnytsia. Official tourist website
• Investment portal of Vinnytsia
• Investment passport of Vinnytsia
• The budget of the Vinnytsia Urban Territorial Community on the State citizens budget web portal