When the Kyiv authorities do not enforce their orders, there are clashes with the police. The situation on Lvivska-Zhyvopysna

Фото Олег Симороз

July 12, 2007 can be considered the starting point in the conflict between the community of Lvivska and Zhyvopysna streets with the developer. It was on this day that the Kyiv City Council, chaired by the then odious Leonid Chernovetsky, adopted a decision №1106 / 1767, which transferred to the Limited Liability Company “PIVDENBUDKONTRAKT” a plot of land at the intersection of the two above-mentioned streets for the construction of a 25-storey residential complex with the multilevel underground parking.

According to the current Master Plan of the city of Kyiv, the site belongs to the green zone

Everything would be fine, but the plot under cadastral number: 8000000000: 75: 212: 0010, which the deputies so hastily handed over to entrepreneurs for use, belonged to the green zone of public use, and the surrounding area belonged to the zones of low-rise and medium-rise buildings (not more than 9 floors).

All this back in 2017 brought people to the streets and encouraged active struggle. Indefinite protests in front of the entrance to the construction site, collective marches to all possible authorities and even the dismantling of the hated fence – all this was held by the community in the fight for the right to a green zone near their own home. And well, we must say – this fight was successful! For a short time, a children’s playground even appeared on the site of the dismantled fence, and the mayor himself, Vitali Klitschko, promised that the City Council would vote to refuse to extend the lease agreement for the developer. The video with the promise can be viewed at the link- https://www.facebook.com/100025414014382/posts/774295706760889/?d=n.

However, the developer was not going to abandon his plans for construction, so soon “without asking anyone” the area was again surrounded by a fence (now much larger), century-old pines were cut down, and the playground was replaced by heavy construction equipment.

The initiative group of Lvivska-Zhyvopysna streets continued to take part in actions and beat the thresholds of all possible controlling instances. On April 10, 2018, after another ignoring of the developer’s demands to return the playground and the green area of the community, construction trailers were burned and a concrete fence was partially dismantled. And on May 14 of the same year, the Department of the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate in Kyiv (hereinafter – the Department) issued an order to completely stop construction and preparatory work on the site.

The developer is still not going to comply with the Department’s instruction

At the same time, opposition deputies Sviatoslav Kutnyak and Prokhor Antonenko prepared draft decisions on terminating the lease agreement with an unscrupulous user and refusing to extend the agreement on the same grounds. However, as noted above – despite the promise of Vitali Klitschko himself, the relevant draft decisions, for some reason (!), were not voted.

New winter storm

It is the “storm” and in no other way that the residents of Lvivska-Zhyvopisna explain another fall of the fence on the already scandalous construction! A few days earlier, on November 16, after a long break, work resumed on the construction site and people protested again. The peaceful assembly of citizens, who did not plan to let construction equipment on the site in response to the Department’s order, which the developer could not challenge in court, almost ended in a mass brawl. This time, the developer did not celebrate with the methods and ways to achieve their goals, so the mothers of wheelchairs and retirees were opposed by the notorious young sportsmen. The police, as usual in such a situation, showed passivity – at first no one was in a hurry to go to the calls of citizens, and as a result – no person of the attacker was identified, no culprit was taken to the regional department. Is it fair to say that no one will be punished?

The developer responds to peaceful assemblies with aggression, Photo: “Lvivska-Zhyvopisna” group

Well, realizing that no one but themselves will protect and help, the community of nearby houses with the site of future construction gathered on November 18. This time it was mostly men, which is interesting – completely different ages! (I have personally seen old grandfathers and young men under 16)

The landing of the growing popular protest was complemented by public activists, bloggers and several journalists. Towards eight o’clock in the evening, they all witnessed the response of local residents to the aggression of the developer, which took place a few days earlier. In just five minutes, a fortified, even more massive fence fell at the feet of the protesters, and the information stand announcing the construction of a 25-storey building here instead of a public garden was finally torn down.

The poster informing about the construction of the 25-storey building was in dire straits

Surprisingly, in two minutes on Lvivska Street there were already three crews of the National Police, which a few days earlier completely ignored the appeals of local residents about the illegal actions of the developer. But that’s not all! A few minutes later, a whole special unit arrived at the scene – people in black balaclavas blocked the broken section of the fence, standing side by side with sports boys, and “ordinary” police began to search intensively for the perpetrators.

Photo by Oleg Simoroz

Personal vendetta?

After the arrival of law enforcement officers, the center of the action smoothly moved to one of the adjacent yards. Not wanting to provoke further escalation of the conflict, the community decided to continue its meeting on both sides of the conflict.

And while people were consulting with human rights activists on a legal solution to the problem of the reluctance of developers to follow the provisions of the law, the police took explanations from all those who were “on the other side of the barricades”.

Police cover the gap in the fence

After a lengthy meeting at the construction site, a senior law enforcement officer ordered the detention of opposition MP Prokhor Antonenko and his aide, Oleg Simoroz, who are constantly advising local residents on how to legally resolve the issue of preserving the green zone. So, on the evening of November 18, the police tried to detain the author of the draft decision of the Kyiv City Council to refuse to extend and terminate the lease agreement with the developer, among about a hundred participants of the action.

Doesn’t that seem strange to you? The position of the community was similar, under the pressure of which the deputy and his assistant were released after a short verbal altercation. Here is how Antonenko himself commented on the situation on his Facebook page. How it all happened, see the link – https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1388985408134590&id=100010694316835

A video of the attempted illegal detention was posted online. Antonenko also said that a statement to the State Bureau of Investigation would be prepared on the fact of illegal actions of the police.

“Active Citizens” continue to monitor the development of the situation around the resonant construction and will inform you about the further course of events!

Dmytro Perov , founder Public organization “Green Minute”

Translated by Yevhenii Kalinichenko

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