Kyiv and Lutsk topped the rankings in the pilot study “European City Index 2025”, conducted by the “Transparent Cities” programme of Transparency International Ukraine. The average score across all 11 Ukrainian cities was 44 points out of a possible 100.
The pilot study ran from October 2025 to July 2026. It covered Kyiv and ten regional capitals: Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Kropyvnytskyi, Lutsk, Lviv, Odesa, Poltava, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi and Chernihiv.
Overall, six areas of local government activity were assessed: openness of city councils, e-services, open data, public finances, integrity and anti-corruption, and accountability. Each area was evaluated using 40 indicators, and the maximum score for each sub-index was 100 points.
According to the study results, Kyiv scored 55.3 points, and Lutsk 53.4 points. Transparency International Ukraine noted that even these results indicate a low level of readiness among city councils to meet the requirements of European integration in the area of transparent democratic governance.
Kyiv delivered the best results in e-services and open data, while Lutsk led in integrity and anti-corruption, and accountability.
The lowest results in the study were recorded by Chernihiv and Poltava. Chernihiv scored below 50 points across all six areas. Poltava was among the bottom three in five of the six sub-indices.
City councils performed best on openness and e-services. The average level of compliance was 53.5% and 49.8% respectively. The most problematic area was open data, where the average score was only 23.1%.
The study found that 79% of cities’ scores for individual sub-indices fell within the range of 30 to 69 points. The highest result—70 points—was achieved by Kyiv in the “E-Services” sub-index.
Analysts also examined the “single point of entry” principle: the presence on city council websites of thematic sections where all necessary information on a given issue is compiled and regularly updated. On average, such sections were in place in 71% of cases.
This approach was implemented best in Kyiv: experts found 14 of the 15 required thematic sections. By contrast, Poltava City Council’s website contained only four out of 15.
The study also highlighted problems with strategic planning. In 2025, only Kyiv, Kropyvnytskyi and Lutsk had an up-to-date community development strategy. At the same time, none of them had published, by the time of the review in July 2026, a report on the results of monitoring the strategy’s implementation for 2025.
Analysts also pointed to an insufficient level of resident involvement in decision-making. Only the mayors of Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv and Poltava reported on their work for 2025 at an open meeting with the community.
Transparency International Ukraine noted that follow-up monitoring in certain areas showed positive momentum. In particular, the average level of compliance with indicators in openness rose from 53.5% to 72.4%, e-services—from 49.8% to 57.4%, and public finances—from 44.4% to 53.75%.