The fire at the Zhovten cinema looks like arson.

October

Cinema "Zhovten"

Last night (October 29, 2014, at 22:45 pm) the Zhovten cinema caught fire right during a movie showing.

As eyewitness Alexey Chashchin told the Censor website, the fire broke out around the 20-minute mark of the film:
"From the back rows, we heard cries of 'Smoke!' We didn't even immediately realize what had happened. We managed to quickly evacuate people from that screening and from other halls at Zhovten. The first fire truck arrived very quickly, the others arrived when smoke started pouring out of the windows."

Fires are quite common in Kyiv, but the origins of this particular blaze are controversial. It's no secret that Kinoman LLC has been facing eviction from its building in Podil for several years now.

The Kyiv Commercial Court ordered the cinema workers who founded the company "Kinoman" to vacate the premises. This decision is currently being appealed in a higher court.

Ihor Lutsenko, a Kyiv City Council member, noted on his Facebook page: "Let me remind you that the cinema is currently in litigation. It's municipal property, and they're trying to evict the current tenants, who made it a cult place. This all started under Yanukovych. A proposal to extend the lease has just been registered with the Kyiv City Council. Everything should have been resolved smoothly, but then there was the fire."

Anna Grabarskaya also wrote on Facebook: "It caught fire before our eyes!!! Firefighters say it was set in several places at once."

In February 2014, the Kyiv city administration promised to sign a new three-year lease agreement with Kinoman LLC, the company that manages the cinema. In October, the Kyiv Commercial Court fully satisfied the demands of the Podolsk District Prosecutor's Office and ordered Kinoman LLC to return the entire property complex of the Zhovten Cinema to the municipality.
SKELET-info

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