On May 5, active residents of the villages of Markhalivka and Ivankovychi near Kyiv held a protest near the State Environmental Inspectorate (SEI) of the Capital District to demand an objective inspection of the construction site of the National Military Memorial Cemetery (NMMC).
They reported this on the Facebook page “Support Markhalivka”.
The community representatives demanded that the inspectors fulfill their direct duties and warned against “tacitly assisting in the illegal destruction of the forest.”
The activists insisted on
- recording the facts of the destruction of the Markhaliv forest;
- investigation of the peat removal from the area where the NGCC is planned to be built;
- involvement of the community in inspections that should be real, not fictitious.
According to the residents, 12 villages fall within the zone of influence of the plant, and this area is turning into an ecocide zone. They reminded of the high groundwater level in the area allocated for the cemetery and the inadmissibility of burying the defenders of Ukraine there.
“We demand that you fulfill your direct duties, not criminal orders!” the protesters called.
They insist that the silence of the environmental inspection is “complicity in a crime against nature, fallen soldiers, the community and the law.”
The residents noted that they understand the complexity of the situation and the possible pressure on the environmental inspection from the government, officials of NMMC, and the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine. Nevertheless, they asked the SEI representatives who came to them to take a professional and independent approach to the issue and express their opinion objectively during the inspection.
Officials of the Ecological Inspectorate of the Capital District, headed by Yana Mayboroda, said that the inspection had already begun on behalf of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine. The issues of illegal logging, high groundwater levels, and the legality of the land allocation for the memorial cemetery are being considered.
Based on the results of the inspection, representatives of the SEI promised to draw up an act and record the violations that will be found. They invited activists to participate in the inspection to make it “as objective as possible.”
EcoPolitic recently reported that the Ministry of Veterans is trying to circumvent the court decision in defense of the Markhalivskyi forest. In the same article, you can read the chronology of activists' defense of the Markhalivskyi forest, which belongs to the Emerald Network.
