For eight years now, the community of Zaporizhzhia has been fighting to preserve a public park in the city center. There are plans to build a shopping and entertainment center on this green space, which is currently named after Denis Tarasov, a fallen soldier and defender of this area. The community was on the verge of reclaiming the land, but recently the Zaporizhzhia City Council, in gross violation of regulations, decided to divide the plots, once again jeopardizing the park’s future.
According to "Holka," the Zaporizhzhia authorities leased the nearly 4-hectare plot to Land Development LLC. The publication links the project to Volodymyr Kaltsiev, a member of parliament from the banned Opposition Platform—For Life party.
The History of the struggle
Back in December 2017, the Zaporizhzhia City Council allowed the tenant of this plot to cut down trees there and fence off the future construction site. At that time, city residents united to protect the green space—people tore down the fence and organized a vigil in the park. However, protests and lengthy court battles have not succeeded, as the territory remains leased under a decision by the Zaporizhzhia City Council.
Even amid a full-scale war, the fight to protect the park continues. Lawyer Denys Tarasov, who led the resistance, was killed in the war, but his cause is being carried on by Olga Sladkova. Since 2023, she has been trying through the courts to overturn the lease of the green space.
Since December 2025, city authorities have been trying to resolve the conflict through a compromise: returning part of the park to city ownership and leaving part to the lessee. The price of such partial concessions was supposed to be the end of the legal dispute.
Source: holka.org
Division with procedural violations
Despite all negotiations with activists, at the end of February, the Zaporizhzhia authorities implemented an unexpected scheme-two plots of the square were divided into four.
Initially, this decision was supported by the land commission, chaired by a deputy elected from the banned OPZZh party. Half an hour later, the decision was approved by the deputies of the Zaporizhzhia City Council-without any discussion or opportunity for the public to have any influence on the situation. According to "Holka," local politicians thus launched the procedure for assigning new cadastral numbers.
According to one of the deputies, there was no such provision in the previous draft, and the protocol of the conciliatory council was not made public. That is, the deputies saw the final text of the draft decision only directly at the session.
"Voting on the proposed resolution should be conducted so as to ensure the genuine expression of will for each deputy participating in the vote. If a deputy is unaware that there have been changes added to the draft and the secretary submits it for the session, legitimate doubts arise about the validity of such an expression of will," commented deputy Kateryna Zvereva.
Source: holka.org
“The decisions to divide the land of the Tarasov Square and the square near the circus were made with gross procedural violations. Moreover, these decisions create additional complications for our court case. It appears that this was promoted in the interest of the 'Land Development' company, as we are talking about the division of land plots that are the subject of a legal dispute,” said activist Olha Sladkova.
It will be more difficult to win a lawsuit over the land
Activists are convinced that the division of the plots could hinder the possible return of the land to the community. Therefore, they filed a motion with the court to halt the partitioning of the territory.
However, the Voznesensky District Court of Zaporizhzhia assured that freezing the plots or suspending transactions with them could affect the consideration of the case. As a result, the activists were denied their request to prohibit any actions with the land.
Importance for an industrial city
Zaporizhzhia is a large industrial center with extremely polluted air. Green spaces here play both an aesthetic and an ecological role, offsetting pollution and preventing the urban area from overheating.
However, activists emphasize that instead of maintaining and expanding green areas, they are being neglected and reduced.
An independent environmental assessment, conducted for the court at the initiative of the square’s defenders, has already shown that after the trees were cut down, a so-called “heat island” was formed there.
EcoPolitic previously reported that the community and activists in the capital lost in court in the case of preserving “Protasiv Yar.” Experts attributed this outcome to a hasty and politicized decision by the Kyiv City Council.
Meanwhile, in Lviv, regulations for greening parking lots were introduced. The city plans to reduce urban overheating in this way.
