42 Million and Questions from Families: Who and How is Building the Alley of Memory in Irpin
Reconstruction of the burial sector at Irpin cemetery has resumed after a winter pause—with weather justifications and a contractor from Bakhmut for 42.72 million hryvnias. Families of the deceased have been involved in consultations, but the mechanism of their influence on the quality of work remains unclear.
By Tetiana Suchkova-Ladik
April 7, 2026 · 2 min read
In Irpin, after a winter break, construction work has resumed on the "Alley of Memory of Ukraine's Defenders" sector at the city cemetery on Mykola Rudenko Street. The main slab covering four rows of graves is already complete, according to acting city mayor Angela Makeyeva. The contractor is simultaneously eliminating "defects caused by weather conditions."
This last formulation is not a technical detail. It emerged at a working meeting attended by families of the fallen. That is, people for whom this facility is not a municipal contract, but a place where their child or husband lies.
Contractor from Bakhmut and 42 million
According to KyivVlada, on August 6, 2024, the executive committee of the Irpin City Council signed a contract with LLC "Art Alliance Group" — a company from Bakhmut — for 42.72 million hryvnias. The information is available in the open Prozorro system.
The contractor's registration location is not a violation in itself. But in a context where the customer directly acknowledges the existence of defects after the first construction season, and families of the fallen are involved in meetings without a clearly defined status — questions of quality and control become concrete, not rhetorical.
What has been done — and what lies ahead
- The main slab on four rows of graves is completed.
- The contractor is eliminating weather damage and continuing landscaping work.
- Families of the fallen are participating in working meetings with the contractor.
- Deadlines for complete project completion have not been publicly announced.
"This project is very important for our community, for the families of fallen Heroes, and for me personally. Irpin will create a worthy memorial to each Hero who gave his life for our community and Ukraine."
— Angela Makeyeva, acting mayor of Irpin
Irpin is a city that became a symbol of stopping the Russian offensive in March 2022. How exactly a memorial for fallen defenders will be built here is not a local budgeting case. It is a precedent for dozens of communities that are currently designing or already building similar facilities.
If families of the fallen are present at meetings only as observers without the right to have their impact on defect elimination formally recorded — the alley of memory risks becoming yet another facility "completed as a whole," but not accepted by those it was built for.
