On August 5, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal ruled that the allocation of land for the National Military Memorial Cemetery (NMMC) near the village of Markhalivka, near Kyiv, was illegal.
This was reported by activists from the NGO “Markhalivka. Support” and the director of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center (KECC), Volodymyr Boreiko.
The Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the court of first instance—the Kyiv District Administrative Court—and thus ruled that Order No. 275 of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration dated March 14, 2024, was illegal. “On the seizure and transfer for permanent use of a land plot with a change in its intended purpose to the State Institution ”National Military Memorial Cemetery".
Volodymyr Boreyko says that now the land is being returned to its former owner, the Boyarka Forest Research Station. The purpose of the plot is also changing — from now on, it is no longer cemetery land, but state forest fund land. The court's decision has already come into force.
The NGO “Markhalivka. Support” emphasized that this land no longer belongs to the NMMC, any work on this land plot must be stopped immediately, and logging here is now officially prohibited.
“As we can see, for the fourth time in a row, the defenders of the Markhalivka Forest – the NGO ”Markhalivka. Support" and the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center – have won against the officials in court. All subordinate acts that were illegally and hastily developed by the Ministry of Veterans Affairs regarding this military cemetery and adopted are falling apart in court one after another, like a house of cards," commented the director of the KECC on the court's decision.
He expressed hope that Yulia Svyrydenko's new government “will draw the right conclusions and refuse to finance this adventure near Markhalivka.”
"But the question remains: which corrupt officials will be held accountable for the crime?
For the felled trees, the destroyed ecosystem, and the taxpayers' money, billions of which were poured into illegal construction?“ asked the NGO ”Makhaliivka. Support."
On March 18, EcoPolitic reported on the suspicions of environmental activists that the Ministry of Environment wants to remove the Markhalivka Forest from the Emerald Network. Activists also caught the Ministry of Environment lying to Europe about logging in this forest.
Later, the KECC accused the Cabinet of Ministers of falsification in order to exclude the Markhalivka Forest from the Emerald Network.
This was preceded by three court cases won by eco-activists and the public against the Cabinet of Ministers and the Kyiv Regional Military Administration. Here is the chronology:
- On September 25, 2024, the Kyiv District Administrative Court ruled that Ukrainian government resolution No. 225, which allowed for the mass logging of the Markhaliv Forest near Kyiv for a military memorial cemetery, was illegal.
- On January 16 of this year, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal also confirmed the illegality of the aforementioned resolution. In early February, we reported that despite the court ban, logging continues in the Markhaliv Forest.
- On March 6, EcoPolitic reported that the Kyiv District Administrative Court had ruled that the Kyiv Regional Military Administration's order to allocate the Markhaliv Forest territory for a National Military Memorial Cemetery was illegal. This was the third court case that ended in favor of the forest defenders.
At the end of April, eco-activists warned that the Ministry of Veterans Affairs had prepared a draft of a new resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine regarding work in the Markhaliv Forest, similar to Resolution No. 225, which had been declared illegal.
In mid-May, we wrote that the Bureau of the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention had criticized the Ukrainian authorities' decision to allocate part of the Emerald Network territory for the construction of a National Military Memorial Cemetery.
And on May 28, the Kyiv-Sviatoshyn District Court issued a ruling prohibiting the NVMK from cutting down the Markhaliv Forest near Kyiv and conducting burials there.
