The ex-minister of environment protection and natural resources of Ukraine, Ruslan Strilets, was accused of an unsuccessful personnel policy, blocking the work of the environmental inspection and deterioration of environmental legislation during his tenure.
Volodymyr Boreyko, director of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center (KECC), expressed his assessment of the almost three-year activity of the official on Facebook.
He believes that in his position as a minister, Strilets caused enormous damage "both to the Ministry of the Environment itself and to environmental protection."
Personnel issues
Boreyko accused the ex-minister of the loss or even deliberate "survival" of experienced and competent employees: "high-class specialist in conservation affairs Anastasia Drapalyuk, excellent specialist in forest protection Petro Testov", "director of the Department of Conservation Affairs Eduard Arustamyan, whose letter in support was signed by almost all reserves and national parks".
The Honored Nature Conservator of Ukraine also reminded that Ruslan Strilets appointed Maksym Shestopal to the position of director of the Nizhny Dnipro National Park, subordinate to the Ministry of Environment, "a hunter and also a person who at one time strongly opposed the creation of this park."
Secrecy of the results of EIA
According to Volodymyr Boreyk, the former head of the Ministry of Environment tried to avoid nature protection issues, as they are always conflicting. For this, according to the conservationist, he used martial law.
"With him, the results of the environmental assessment (environmental impact assessment) were practically classified, which made it impossible for the public to control the activities of officials in the field of environmental expertise. As a result, for example, we were not able to catch the Department of Environmental Protection of the KMDA falsifying the EIA in time, which falsified the environmental expertise regarding the destruction of the nature of the protected Obolonsky Island in Kyiv," says the director of the KECC.
"Tying hands" of eco-inspection
Another huge mistake of Strilets Boreyko calls the blocking of the work of the environmental inspection. He claims that the ex-minister voluntarily extended the ban on business inspections during the war period to state enterprises as well.
"As a result, the ecoinspection completely stopped monitoring compliance with environmental laws throughout the country. Now in Kyiv, for example, with the support of Mayor Klitschko, there is a massive destruction of protected objects, but the environmental inspection, due to the position of Strilets, practically removed itself from protecting protected objects and punishing the guilty", – the environmentalist is outraged.
Protected business
Volodymyr Boreyko claims that during the tenure of the ex-minister of the Ministry of Environment, he practically stopped creating new protected objects. The only exception is the creation of Mezhyhirya, a park-monument of horticultural art of national importance, which, according to the specialist, has no ecological value at all.
"The shooter, as they say, forbade the creation of new protected objects, and secretly ordered to stop controlling the regional Departments of Ecology in this matter," said the head of the KECC.
Environmental legislation
During the leadership of Strilets, there was a deterioration in this area, Boreyko believes. As an example, he cited the recent amendments to the Law "On Subsoil", which allowed businesses to start extracting minerals not only without the consent of local authorities, but also without the consent of the Ministry of Environment.
"As a result, the recently known primeval forest natural monument "Poppy Swamp" in the Rivne region was given over to peat development. This is the result of the destructive activity of Strilets," the ecologist is confident.
He considers the approval of the Cabinet of Ukraine Resolution No. 225 of 03.1.24, which gave the management of the military cemetery the opportunity to cut down the Markhaliv forest without permits, as another example.
"And this despite the fact that the Markhaliv Forest is part of the European Emerald Network, and cutting it is prohibited by the provisions of the Berne Convention. Currently, the Secretariat of the Berne Convention has begun to investigate this violation of Ukraine at the international level," says Boreyko.
"Imitation of activity and mass PR"
The director of KECC accused Ruslan Strilets of imitation of activity and mass PR and complete inaction in case of serious environmental situations. As an example, he cited the recent pollution of the Seim and Desna rivers.
"In fact, Strilets turned the entire ministry into an absolutely useless bureaucratic structure, which every day at the expense of the state gave birth to a bunch of useless papers and stupid PR interviews of its minister," said the environmentalist.
Volodymyr Boreyko even appealed to the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine with a request to consider his article as a statement about the crime of Strilets, so that in the future he would appear before the court.
"People like Strelets should be in prison," the ecologist is confident.
The other day, Ekopolitika published detailed analysis the report of the former head of the Ministry of Environment, Ruslan Strilets, about the work performed in his position, which he posted on his own Facebook page instead of reporting to the People's Deputies in the Rada.
You can familiarize yourself with the cases regarding Obolonsky Island and the "Poppy Swamp" in more detail in the materials of EcoPolitics: "The Department of Ecology of the KMDA was accused of machinations for the development of Obolonsky Island in Kyiv" and "The Eco-prosecution was able to protect a unique natural monument."
