On September 25, the Kyiv District Administrative Court recognized as illegal the decision of the government of Ukraine, which allowed mass felling of the Markhaliv forest near Kyiv under the military memorial cemetery.
This was reported to the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center (KECC), whose members filed a lawsuit in this regard.
Ecologist Volodymyr Boreyko, director of the center, noted that the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated March 1, 2024 No. 225 "Some issues of removal of trees, shrubs, lawns and flower beds during preparatory and/or construction works and operation of the National Military Memorial Cemetery" roughly violates not only a number of laws of Ukraine, but also the international Bern Convention ratified by Ukraine.
He said that the Secretariat of the Berne Convention has already started a case against Ukraine for its violation.
"I believe that the responsibility of the Ministry of Veterans, which is already hitting the bar for the fourth time with the selection of a site for a military cemetery, should be responsible for the preparation of illegal resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers and for the selection of a site for a military cemetery," Boreyko said.
He expressed hope that the new Minister of Ecology, Svitlana Grynchuk, will support the position of KECC that European laws and values - the Emerald Network and the Berne Convention – should not be violated by Ukraine if it sees itself in the European Union.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that on July 31 EcoPolitic reported that activists of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center sued against the government because of the illegal, in their opinion, Resolution No. 225, which allows the demolition of trees for the construction of a military memorial cemetery.
We also wrote about what the KECC was accused officials of the Ministry of Veterans' Affairs of Ukraine in an attempt to destroy 270 hectares of the Markhaliv Forest in order to further sell the wood and obtain a profit of UAH 80 million.
After the victory in court on September 25, eco-activists promised to continue to break this corruption scheme in the courts, which, in their opinion, was created under the guise of building a military cemetery. They are sure that the officials of the Ministry of Veterans, involved in it, should be punished.
