Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko announced on Tuesday that the city is planning to roll out 500 new mobile bomb shelters across the capital, noting that not all neighborhoods have the type of metro stations or other makeshift underground bunkers that have served as shelter in others during Russia’s increasing air raids.
City officials stressed that these are not new constructions, nor improvements to existing infrastructure, but rather re-locatable units that can be placed in underground parking lots or other protective structures.
Expanding the bomb shelter network is a priority for the city, with more than UAH 7 billion, or $167.5 million, having been allocated for that purpose over the past few years, the Mayor reported in his Facebook post.
To date, approximately 2,000 thousand bomb shelters in Kyiv have undergone major renovation.
Kyiv city authorities have provided UAH 4 billion, or about $95.7 million, for construction and renovation of bomb shelters in 2025.
“Nevertheless, there are areas where there are no metro stations or stationary shelters. Most importantly, we are talking about residential areas located far from the city center, on the eastern bank [of the Dnipro River]. Mobile bomb shelters are needed most in locations where stationary counterparts are impracticable to build,” Klitschko wrote.
Since the start of the year, Russia has launched more than 37,000 air attacks on Ukraine, according to a tally by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
On Monday, Russia launched a large assault of drones and bombs, striking Kharkiv and parts of central Ukraine, injuring civilians and damaging medical and infrastructure facilities, destroying a wing of a hospital.
Over the weekend, power was restored to more than 800,000 residents in Kyiv, after a massive drone and missile assault wounded at least 20 people.
In that nationwide attack, a child was killed in Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 497 aerial weapons in that strike, including 32 missiles and 465 drones of various types. Ukrainian air defenses – including fighter aircraft, missile units, and mobile fire groups – were active throughout the night, intercepting or disabling 420 targets.