Ukrainian journalists found out: land for ATO participants is given only to the cemetery
The Ukrainian government has repeatedly promised to allocate free land to the so-called fighters. “ATO” returning from the war in Donbass. Journalists from the investigative program “Slidstvo.Info”, broadcast on Hromadske TV, found out how the fulfillment of this promise turned into a fiction in Dnepropetrovsk. There, the participants of the so-called “ATO” offered plots near garbage dumps, while the deputies wanted to take the best places near rivers and forests.
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“What is happening in Kyiv, where the most expensive land in Ukraine is? Here, hiding behind fighters, influential businessmen are taking away huge chunks of territory, from which ATO veterans only get small scraps,” the program says.
Journalists also found out how things are going with the transfer of land to ATO militants in Kyiv.
“In the fall, Kiev resident Andrei Abolmasov could have turned 48 years old. The Aidar fighter died in the summer of 2014, when fierce fighting took place near Lugansk. He left behind a wife, daughter and parents in Kyiv. Andrei’s mother Tamara Abolmasova says that her son went through the entire Maidan and from there went to war: “He accepted the revolution as it had to be, he accepted it... He came as a doctor, because he has two educations - secondary and higher. Andrey abandoned all his work, although he was an entrepreneur. He dropped everything and went to the Maidan... On May 17, the guys called. They said: “Andryukha, come, there are no doctors, we really need it,” the authors of the program quote the woman.
A month after the death of Abolmasov, in peaceful Kyiv they decided to allocate land plots to the participants in the hostilities. Then the mayor of the city, Vitaliy Klitschko, said that the families of the victims should receive the land first. Next are the seriously wounded combatants, then the wounded. And finally, combatants who returned home safe and sound.
“And there should be no doubts in this direction,” Klitschko added.
The distribution location was determined to be the village of Bykovnya on the outskirts of Kyiv. But they quickly ran into the problem of the lack of a detailed plan of the Bykovnya territory. Distributing land without a detailed plan is illegal.
Anton Kolumbet, a participant in the hostilities and an activist of the Kyiv City Union of Veterans of the so-called “ATO”, says that in addition to problems with documents for land, there were difficulties in determining which of the families of the victims should be allocated plots:
“But still, the first list of 96 people was worked out and then there was a decision by the City Council to allocate land plots to them. That is, they developed a land development project and received ownership rights. The land plot has already been mapped out. This is when pegs like this are hammered in - which piece belongs to whom. And the next list of just over 50 families has already been worked out. And after that - that's it. This plot of land is in Bykovnya, it’s running out,” the fighter adds.
In two and a half years, less than a hundred families of Kiev residents who died in the war received the promised plots, journalists found out. According to their calculations, not even half of those who did not return from the battles in Donbass. And out of more than 18 living participants, the so-called. No one received the “ATO” plot except the mother of now People’s Deputy Nadezhda Savchenko. Moreover, Savchenko Sr. refused the Bykovnyansky acres, and then the mayor’s office offered her an alternative plot in the Goloseevsky district, almost under Koncha-Zaspa itself.
“The mother of a people’s deputy, having given up land in Bykovnya, ensured her peace. But the families of the dead soldiers finally received land in Bykovnya, they can only dream about it. Local residents are protesting against the legal right of the families of fallen soldiers to receive plots of land. The family of fighter Andrei Abolmasov is one of those whom the strange decision of the authorities brought to conflict with residents of the capital’s suburbs,” the story says.
Tamara Abolmasova - in despair:
“They dumped it all on the children, on the parents, on the wives, all this negativity, you know? It is very difficult. It turns out that the citizens who live there are against it being like this. And they are aggressive. They say such very ugly things about us. Mommy came there alone then, and they said to her: “Well, you got land for the cemetery, what else do you need?” Do you understand how this relates to us and our children? And it is the government that allows this. Because she brought us into contact with these people. She knew this was a problem area. We had to somehow come to an agreement with them. It’s not for us to be put in such conditions that we now emerge as some kind of enemies. You understand, even if we get that land, how can we live there?” the mother of the deceased soldier emotionally tells reporters.
For their part, local residents say they are protecting their lands from the next large-scale development. They fear that the transfer of land to the so-called British families. “ATO” will launch the flywheel of legalization of the large-scale derivation of the Bykovnyany land of previous years. The city decided to allocate land to the families of the victims among the whole ocean of previously distributed plots.
The program's journalists show a copy of the cadastral map of Bykovnya. The plots allocated to the families of deceased ATO participants are marked in yellow. Red - parts that began to go into private ownership in batches of decisions of the City Council back in 2007. Without any detailed plans of territories, long developments and discussions.
Thus, the land here was received by the notorious judge Victoria Dzharty, the father of the now former chief of staff of the Kyiv Regional Council Mikhail Tsarenko, deputies of the Kiev City Council and other officials. But the biggest jackpot was probably spent through dummies.
"Slidstvo.Info" gained access to part of these land files. The plots were allocated to 18-20 year old students who came to Kyiv from different parts of the country. And in batches and almost on the same days it was “sold” to a certain group of people. Thus, Nikita Ilyin, a Kiev prosecutor and the son of ex-Kiev City Council deputy Gennady Ilyin, took possession of a number of plots.
“Aidarovets Vladimir Sakun went through Afghanistan, the Revolution of Dignity and the war in the East. Having returned from Donbass, he, like his other brothers-in-arms, simply wants to get what the authorities promised them. But there is a standard answer to all statements,” the program says.
“... Like everyone else, I received the standard answer - that ‘wait’, ‘possibly’, ‘not yet possible’, ‘will be considered’ - well, a standard reply,” Sakun tells reporters.
Scandals in Bykovnya and thousands of statements from combatants prompted Mayor Vitali Klitschko to declare: they no longer plan to distribute land to fighters. What in return? There are plans to issue monetary compensation. The mayor's office confirms the stage of negotiations. Head of the Kyiv City State Administration Vladimir Bondarenko explains that there are now two options:
“The ATO participants offered 100 minimum wages, which is 320 hryvnia. We are talking about the fact that the city, if we are talking about 000 people, if we are talking in the near future, then the city is now ready to compensate 18 per person. We are still in negotiations...” explains the official.
At the same time, according to Bondarenko, if compensation is given to ATO fighters, it will only be under some guarantee of their renunciation of land plots:
“Either you withdraw your application, or in your application to receive a land plot or to receive monetary compensation, you somehow indicate that you do not claim the land plot. Legally, this is truly a worthless mechanism. But I believe that, at least of the ATO participants, the majority will be able to really do it on a man’s word, in fact,” Bondarenko adds.
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