The first court hearing in the case of environmental activists of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center (KECC) against the Secretary of the Kyiv City Council Volodymyr Bondarenko, who accuse the official of blocking the creation of new protected areas in the capital, has been held.
The KECC team announced this on its Facebook page.
According to the activists, on January 20, Judge S. Lapiy of the Kyiv District Administrative Court held the first court hearing in this case. They say that the funds for the trial against the official were raised by the Kyiv community.
What is the reason for the lawsuit
The KECC members consider the decision of the Kyiv City Council, drafted in late May 2024 by Volodymyr Bondarenko together with UDAR deputy Yulia Lymar, to be illegal. According to the activists, it completely blocked the creation of new protected areas in Kyiv.
“We believe that this was done for developers and at their request. Therefore, if earlier 10-15 new protected areas were created in Kyiv per year, in 2024 the Kyiv City Council, thanks to Lymar and Bondarenko, did not create a single protected area,” the KECC said.
Therefore, the activists have filed a lawsuit against the Kyiv City Council and want to appeal the actions of deputies Lymar and Bondarenko. They also reported that at the first court hearing, the State Regulatory Service and the environmental NGO Svarozhychi were involved as third parties on the side of the KECC. Earlier, the activists reported that this service also recognized the decision made by the Kyiv City Council as illegal.
The environmentalists hope that the court will not only overturn what they believe to be an illegal decision of the Kyiv City Council, but also give a fair legal assessment of the actions of the deputies in question.
"And this will be the beginning of the political end of the secretary of the Kyiv Rada Bondarenko, who completely broke down and lied. And also deputy Lymar, who has done a lot of bad things for nature protection," expressed their hope.
Earlier, EcoPolitic reporged, KECC activists won already the second trial against the Cabinet of Ministers for the protection of the Markhaliv forest. Also the director of the center Volodymyr Boreyko got into to the TOP-10 real Ukrainian eco-activists for 2024 from EcoPolitics.
