The Ministry of Veterans Affairs has drafted a new resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on works on the territory of the Markhaliv Forest near Kyiv to arrange the National Military Memorial Cemetery.
This was reported by the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center (KECC).
The activists thanked the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine and Deputy Minister Oleksandr Semenets for not approving this draft document, entitled “Some issues of removing, cutting and replanting trees, shrubs, lawns and flower beds during preparatory and/or construction work and operation of the National Military Memorial Cemetery during martial law.”
The reason for the refusal was that a similar resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers had already been canceled by the court. We are talking about Resolution 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” of March 1, 2024. The LECC also reminded that the Environmental Agency under the leadership of former Minister Ruslan Strilets had approved this document.
Why Resolution №225 was declared illegal
One of the grounds for the court decision to cancel the resolution was that the land plots on which the construction is planned belong to the territory of the Emerald Network, which has a special environmental protection status.
The KECC reminded that they had won two lawsuits against the Cabinet of Ministers in defense of the Markhalivskyi forest. Thus, on September 25, 2024, the Kyiv District Administrative Court declared illegal the Government of Ukraine's Resolution No. 225, which allowed massive felling of the Markhalivskyi 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.
“And now the Ministry of Veterans is once again following the same anti-legal path, having drafted a similar illegal resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers on the felling of the Markhaliv forest. This is a blatant situation when a state body, the Ministry of Veterans, ignores the decision of the judicial branch of government, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal,” the activists are outraged.
They accused the leadership of the Ministry of Veterans of repeatedly disregarding a number of laws of Ukraine, as well as the international Berne Convention, which has been ratified by Ukraine.
The KECC is surprised that the ministry is trying to submit an illegal resolution on logging in the Markhaliv forest for the government's approval for the second time.
“How can we believe these people about the alleged compliance with all environmental standards during the construction of the military memorial cemetery, if they are deceiving the Cabinet of Ministers for the second time? Instead of admitting their mistake in choosing a place for a military cemetery in the Markhalivskyi forest, urgently looking for another place for a military cemetery, this group of officials corrupted by impunity decided to trample on court decisions and the laws of Ukraine,” the KECC said.
As a reminder, on March 18, EcoPolitics reported on the suspicion of environmental activists that the Ministry of Ecology wants to remove the Markhalivskyi forest from the Emerald Network. The activists also caught the Ministry of Environment lying to Europe about logging in this forest. Later, the KECC accused the Cabinet of Ministers of falsifying the information to exclude the Markhalivskyi forest from the Emerald Network.
This was preceded by three lawsuits won by environmental 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 declared illegal the Government of Ukraine's Resolution #225, which allowed massive felling of the Markhalivskyi 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, logging continued in the Markhalivskyi forest.
- On March 6, EcoPolitics informed that the Kyiv District Administrative Court had declared illegal the order of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration to allocate the territory of the Markhalivskyi Forest for the National Military Memorial Cemetery. This was the third trial that ended in favor of the forest's defenders.
