The state of public and local roads in Ukraine is catastrophic, and 97% of roads need overhauls and repairs, the deputy head of the State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor), Mykola Berezovsky, has said at a press conference in Kyiv.

According to him, this year the state of roads has reached a critical peak, and in future the situation will only worsen if there is no necessary funding.

He said even patching work was started not on time due to a number of reasons, including, in particular, late financing and the blocking of road organizations' accounts by contractors in three regions.

In addition, Ukravtodor is burdened with payments on loans, bonds, etc.

Some UAH 12 billion of the total funding of UAH 31.354 billion in 2016 will be used for repayment of debts.

According to the head of the financial and economic department of the agency, Oleh Zahorniak, Ukravtodor's debts is currently UAH 43 billion, the same as in 2015. The agency debt's in March was estimated at the same amount.