Ukrainian cities declare their aspirations toward EU integration, yet real openness remains fragmented. Research by TI Ukraine shows that municipalities often implement transparency requirements only formally and rarely ensure the core European standards — from user-friendly website structures to transparent work with humanitarian aid and public access to meetings.

As part of testing new research approaches, the Transparent Cities team analyzed 10 regional centers — Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Kropyvnytskyi, Lutsk, Lviv, Odesa, Poltava, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Chernihiv — and the capital, Kyiv. Each city was assessed against 40 openness criteria.

Overall, the results indicate an average level of openness among all analyzed municipalities. Even the cities that showed better performance did not surpass two-thirds of the maximum possible score.

On average, the cities met 53.5% of all criteria. The highest, though still moderate, result belongs to Dnipro — 66 out of 100 possible points for 28 implemented indicators. Next is Odesa with 64 points, followed by Lviv with 63. The lowest score was recorded in Poltava — 38 points for 16 implemented criteria. Kyiv placed in the middle with 53 points.

The study also included two cities officially designated as territories of potential hostilities — Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv. Despite similar challenges, their performance on openness varied. Zaporizhzhia implemented 24 indicators, while Kharkiv met 19.

Among the positive findings: all analyzed cities publish city council decisions, executive committee decisions, mayoral orders, and organize broadcasts of council sessions.

However, only seven cities broadcast executive committee meetings. Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv did not provide broadcasts of all executive committee meetings in the second quarter of 2025. And the only city that failed to publish all recordings of selected standing committee meetings was Lutsk.

Cities also demonstrated relatively good performance in regulatory policy. Nine out of eleven municipalities properly published their Plans for drafting regulations of the city council and executive committee, and eight published structured links to the regulations themselves.

However, none of the cities published consolidated structured statistics on decisions regarding compensation for damaged or destroyed real estate in a dedicated section. Chernihiv was the only city that ensured the availability of commission decisions on compensation in the relevant section.

All 11 municipalities faced problems in disclosing information about their work with humanitarian aid. Eight of them did not even create a dedicated section on this topic — a critical issue during a full-scale invasion.

Analysts also examined whether Ukrainian municipalities adhere to general European governance approaches in their work with public information. That is, whether city council websites contain convenient, regularly updated thematic sections with all necessary information and correct links to documents and resources.

Kyiv was the only city that ensured logical, user-friendly, and well-structured publication of information. Lviv came close: the website of the city council contains all necessary thematic sections except for the page on humanitarian aid.

«Real transparency does not begin with formally publishing information, but with ensuring logic, completeness, and accessibility of data for residents. If a citizen can find everything they need in just a few clicks — from council meetings to regulatory policy, recovery efforts, or humanitarian aid — this demonstrates a certain level of institutional maturity,» noted Olesia Koval, Transparent Cities Program Manager.

Analysts evaluated municipal websites through the lens of European approaches and from the perspective of an ordinary resident who wants to quickly find essential information about local government operations. The research showed that city councils often comply with openness requirements only formally — they publish information, but without proper logic, structure, or user-friendly access.

This directly affects residents, including internally displaced persons, service members and their families, low-income people, and other vulnerable groups who cannot quickly access services, essential information, or support.

The Transparent Cities program recommends that all city councils review how they work with information for residents:

•  whether websites are logical and convenient, with functional search across all categories of materials and documents
•  whether full information is published about the entire cycle of council work and its decisions
• whether communication with vulnerable population groups is timely and sufficient, tailored to their needs and capacities.

Experts have developed a special self-assessment form to help city council representatives independently evaluate how well their city meets these standards. The program plans to scale the research, so a larger number of cities will be included next year.

 This research was prepared within the framework of the program on institutional development of Transparency International Ukraine, which is carried out with the financial support of Sweden, as well as with the support of the MATRA program of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ukraine.

Transparency International Ukraine is an accredited representative of Global Transparency International. Since 2012, TI Ukraine has been helping Ukraine grow stronger. The organization takes a comprehensive approach to the development and implementation of changes for reduction of corruption levels in certain areas. 

TI Ukraine launched the Transparent Cities program in 2017. Its goal is to foster constructive and meaningful dialogue between citizens, local authorities, and the government to promote high-quality municipal governance, urban development, and effective reconstruction. In 2017–2022, the program annually compiled the Transparency Ranking of the 100 largest cities in Ukraine. After the full-scale invasion, the program conducted two adapted assessments on the state of municipal transparency during wartime. In 2024, the program compiled the Transparency Ranking of 100 Cities, and in 2025, it launched an updated format for assessing city councils — the European City Index.