Activists win third court case in defense of Markhalivskyi forest facebook.com/kekz.ua

Activists win third court case in defense of Markhalivskyi forest

Hanna Velyka

Prior to that, two courts had declared illegal the government's resolution authorizing logging in the area

The Kyiv District Administrative Court has declared illegal the order of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration to allocate the territory of the Markhaliv Forest for the National Military Memorial Cemetery.

This was reported by Volodymyr Boreiko, director of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center. Specialists of this public organization are working on this case.

He says that the court fully supported the claim of their colleagues from the NGO “Markhalivka. Support”. Therefore, the order of the Kyiv Regional Administrative Court No. 275 of 03/14/2024 was declared illegal.

Boreiko emphasized that this is the third court case won by the defenders of the Markhalivka forest. He believes that the aforementioned order of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration and the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 225 “Some issues of removing trees, shrubs, lawns and flower beds during preparatory and/or construction work and operation of the National Military Memorial Cemetery” grossly violate not only a number of laws of Ukraine, but also the international Berne Convention, ratified by Ukraine.

facebook.com/kekz.ua

Source: facebook.com/kekz.ua.

The environmentalist blames the Ministry of Veterans Affairs and the former Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Ruslan Strilets for the preparation of the illegal order of the KOVA and the Cabinet of Ministers' resolution on the selection of a site for the military cemetery, who, according to the environmentalist, misled the government.

This story began in late July 2024. Then activists of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center sued the government over what they considered to be illegal Resolution 225, which allows the demolition of trees to build a military memorial cemetery.

EcoPolitic also wrote that the KECC accused officials of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine of trying to destroy 270 hectares of the Markhaliv forest in order to sell the wood and make a profit of UAH 80 million.

On September 25, 2024, the Kyiv District Administrative Court declared illegal the Ukrainian government's Resolution No. 225, which allowed massive logging of the Markhaliv forest near Kyiv for a military memorial cemetery.

On January 16 of this year, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal also confirmed the illegality of the resolution. In early February, we reported that despite the court's ban, felling in the Markhalivskyi forest continues.

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