Legal disputes continue to surround the creation of the "Protasiv Yar" landscape reserve in Kyiv. Recently, a court excluded 16.5 hectares of land owned by Protasiv Yar LLC from the protected area. The Prosecutor General’s Office announced its intention to seize this land from the company on the grounds that it had previously been sold illegally. Currently, the public and experts are convinced that the developer’s victory was made possible by negligence on the part of city authorities.
The publication “KyivVlada” reported on this in its article.
March Court Ruling
On March 5, the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal effectively revoked the protected status of most of the future nature reserve. To do so, the judges partially overturned Kyiv City Council Resolution No. 4907/4948 of July 14, 2022, regarding the creation of “Protasiv Yar.”
This concerns two plots totaling 16.5 hectares owned by Protasiv Yar LLC. The Kyiv City Council sought to enforce its decision through the courts: to include the company’s plots within the nature reserve, require the company to protect the land, and change its designated use. The company filed a counterclaim and won.
Kyiv authorities have made a mistake
The capital’s authorities decided to establish a nature reserve following the death of Roman Ratushny, one of the initiators of the project. The decision was made in violation of procedure and rather hastily, so environmental activists from the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center (KECC) consider it purely political and a public relations stunt.
Environmentalists and lawyers, together with the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center, called on the Kyiv authorities to first return the private lands to the community and only then protect them by establishing a nature reserve. The authorities did not heed this advice, and developers subsequently took advantage of the situation.
“The City Council obediently voted for the illegal decision to create the reserve, the press mindlessly touted this next ‘victory,’ and the developers, after waiting for the noise to subside, filed a lawsuit. And they won the appeal,” emphasized KECC head Volodymyr Boreyko.
“Indeed, construction will not begin tomorrow. But this creates a dangerous precedent and opens broader opportunities for the destruction of green space in the future. The battle for Protasiv Yar continues. There are also other court cases that could impede development,” the defenders of Protasiv Yar note.
