Vitaliy Klichko
The Verkhovna Rada will oversee the construction at 72 Zverinetskaya Street in Kyiv. Kyiv's deputies have appealed to their senior colleagues to review the situation surrounding the controversial land plot. They fear that the powerful construction lobby entrenched in the Kyiv City Council and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko's personal patronage of his party associates' construction businesses will prevent the conflict between local residents and the developer from being resolved at the city level.
As KyivVlast has learned, the appeal to parliament was approved yesterday at a joint meeting of the Kyiv City Council's Urban Development, Land, and Anti-Corruption Commissions. The issue of 72 Zverinetskaya Street is expected to be brought up at an upcoming meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Preventing and Combating Corruption.
All documents collected by the Kyiv City Council working group investigating the legality of the construction will be submitted to parliament. As a reminder, this working group was created after the conflict escalated and MP Olena Yeskina was beaten right on the construction site, when the Kyiv City Council's Commission on Urban Development, Architecture, and Land Use refused to approve the termination of the lease agreement with the contractors of the controversial project.
As Yaroslav Didenko, chairman of the working group, told KyivVlast, the developer refused to provide some of the documents requested by the deputies. Specifically, the city council members were not shown the construction plans for the residential complex, citing commercial confidentiality. "The builders insist their documents are in order, the construction is legal, and they are prepared to go to court," Mr. Didenko noted.
The developer's overconfidence is easily explained, as the pro-government majority in the City Council simply won't allow the matter to reach the point of legal action. After all, the development at 72 Zverinetskaya Street is being carried out by Ukrbud Development LLC, which is directly affiliated with the state-owned corporation Ukrbud, headed by a City Council member from the UDAR-Solidarity faction. Maxim MikitasVitali Klitschko had already de facto supported this company in a conflict with residents of the capital, specifically in Nikolskaya Slobodka. At the time, the mayor disavowed any involvement in the conflict, placing all responsibility for restoring justice on law enforcement agencies.
The tacit approval of any construction company actions, even the most brazen, by Vitali Klitschko and his first deputy, Igor Nikonov (who also owns a construction business), has alarmed city council members. They are now trying to raise the issue of the controversial development to the state level to relieve pressure from the construction lobby in the city council.
Alexey Rudenko, KyivVlast
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