Chernivtsi City Council voted to terminate memorandums with electric scooter rental operators — Bolt, Vevy, and Jet.ua. The decision is presented as a victory over chaos on sidewalks, but behind the officials' formulations lies a practical nuance: the ban itself doesn't actually prohibit anything.
Oleksandr Dokien, head of the city council's communications department, directly stated that terminating the memorandums does not mean halting the services' operations. Neither the city council nor utilities have the right to confiscate private property of operators or control how a user rides a rented scooter. This is within the authority of the patrol police, and this authority existed before today's vote.
It turns out to be a peculiar construction: deputies voted 22 to 1 to terminate a document that gave the city no real rights other than symbolic "partnership." The actual enforcement mechanism — 14 days for voluntary equipment removal, followed by demolition and a temporary storage lot — depends on whether operators themselves comply with a requirement that has no basis in any micromobility law.
Why the memorandum was the only lever
The memorandums with operators were signed unilaterally by the city mayor at the time, without a decision by the deputy corps — this is precisely what deputy Oksana Zubzhytska called the main reason why "we had to fight for several months." That is, the legal basis for the city's cooperation with Bolt, Vevy, and Jet.ua was weak from the start: not a space rental contract, not a license, but a political agreement that could be terminated with one vote and just as easily signed again unilaterally.
This explains why Chernivtsi now finds itself in a worse position than Lviv or Brovary. The Lviv City Council on July 30 adopted specific rules: a ban on riding for teenagers under 16 years old, speed limits of up to 15 km/h in dangerous areas. This is a regulatory act with requirements for operators and users. Chernivtsi, meanwhile, eliminated formal cooperation, leaving operators technically free to operate without any agreed-upon restrictions.
Where the problem is actually solved
The relevant Verkhovna Rada committee only on June 11 recommended adopting draft law No. 3023 on light electric transport — a document supported in first reading nearly six years ago. Until it becomes law, each city invents its own makeshift solution: some write local rules, others terminate memorandums that had little legal impact.
Complaints from Chernivtsi residents — about minors riding on roadways or sidewalks, about the lack of responsibility for traffic accidents — concern not the existence of a memorandum, but the absence of a system for registering speed, user age, and insurance. This is precisely what a national law should regulate, not a local decision to terminate an agreement with private business.
If operators don't voluntarily remove the scooters within two weeks, deputies promise to bring the question of forced confiscation to the next session. The only question is on what legal basis this next decision will be made — if the first one turned out to be a symbolic gesture without actual authority.
