Hanna Bondar

Hanna Viacheslavivna Bondar' (born 23 February 1975) is a Ukrainian architect and political activist. People's Deputy of Ukraine of the 9th convocation. Acting chief architect of Kyiv and director of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture of the Kyiv City State Administration from October 2015 to April 4, 2016. Honored Architect of Ukraine (2018).^[1][2]

Early life and education

Hanna Bondar was born in a family of architects on February 23, 1975, in Kyiv. She graduated from school No. 25 in Kyiv. In 1997, Bondar graduated from the Faculty of Theory and History of Art of the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv. In 2011, she graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture and received a bachelor's degree. In 2012, she graduated from the Lviv Polytechnic National University.^[3]

Career

Hanna Bondar worked as an architect and advertiser. In 2011–2012, she headed the street space renovation department of the Institute of General Planning of Kyiv. In 2012–2015, she was the Head of the Urban Cadastre Service of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture of the Kyiv City State Administration.^[4]

Bondar supervised architectural competitions. She curated the first festival of urban projects in Kyiv, "PRO misto," a competition of the memorial of the Heavenly Hundred "Territory of Dignity", reconstruction of Kontraktova Square.^[3][4]

In October 2015, Bondar was appointed acting chief architect of the city and director of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture of the Kyiv City State Administration. Subsequently, she became General Director of the Directorate of Technical Regulation in Construction of the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine.^[4]

Political activity

In the parliamentary elections 2019, Hanna Bondar was nominated as a candidate for people's deputies from the "Servant of the People" party in electoral district 220 (Podil district of Kyiv).^[5] As a result of the election, she won, gaining 37.2% of the vote.^[6][1]

Bondar joined the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development, and Urban Planning. She became the head of the Subcommittee on Urban Planning, Land Improvement, and Land Relations within Built-Up Areas in the Parliament of Ukraine. She is a member of the Permanent Delegation in the Parliamentary Dimension of the Central European Initiative.^[7]

In 2020, Bondar and the people's deputy from the “The Opposition Platform – For Life” party Oleksandr Lukashev, came to the High Anti-Corruption Court to plead for the former chief architect of Kyiv, Serhiy Tselovalynyk, who National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine accused of causing 9.3 million hryvnias of damage to the territorial community in Kyiv.^[8]

Controversies

In 2014, Hanna Bondar submitted a paper declaration for 2014 to pass the inspection for the lustration in the Kyiv City State Administration department, she did not declare her car. Also, Bondar did not indicate that she or her family members own any real estate, although she wrote that she lives in a building on Petropavlivska Street in Kyiv. However, the electronic declaration for 2015 shows that Bondar has owned the car since 2009.^[1]

In 2016, she submitted documents with signs of forgery to the commission for holding a competition for the position of chief architect of the city of Kyiv. The mass media call Bondar a creature of Andrii Vavrysh, the former deputy head of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the KMDA.^[9] Mayor of Kyiv, Vitalii Klitschko, repeatedly suspected Vavrysh of covering up corruption schemes. In this connection, the official was dismissed.^[1] Together with Bondar, they "pulled through" several development programs through illegitimate tenders.^[4]

Private life

Hanna Bondar is married and is raising a daughter born in 1997 and two sons born in 2008 and 2013.^[1] Her daughter Sofia is studying in her first year at the Faculty of Architecture.

Works

• "Architectural and Territorial Development Contests: Democracy in Action" (Art book, 2017, Kyiv);^[4]
• "Urban wind. Tales of a Kyivan Woman" (VARTO, 2019, Kyiv);^[10]
• "73 Strange Traps from the Life of the Architect Shchedrykov" feuilleton collection (CANactions, 2020, Kyiv) Translated from Russian by Artem Polezhaka.^[11]

References