Bratski Cells of Discord. Why is Mohylanka suing the State Inspectorate of Urban Planning and Architecture?
On April 3rd, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy filed a lawsuit with the Kyiv District Administrative Court to annul the order for an unscheduled inspection of restoration work by the State Inspectorate of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Bratski Cells. This initiative was reported by the head of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Serhiy Kvit, to the public initiative “Holka”.
“We also demand the recognition of the fine of 90,000 UAH as unlawful, which was previously reported by the Ministry of Restoration,” Kvit emphasized.
It’s worth reminding that in 1993, a lease agreement was signed, under which Kyiv-Mohyla Academy took on a number of obligations regarding the maintenance of this communal property in proper condition.
However, de facto, the presidential decree regarding the transfer of these premises appeared only in 2008. Prior to this, there was Kyiv Clinical Hospital No. 15. And this is the condition in which the Academy received the premises.
The Permanent Commission on Technogenic and Environmental Safety and Emergency Situations of Kyiv City State Administration, when inspecting the premises, classified what they found as a “Technogenic Emergency Situation” at the local level, “Emergency due to the collapse of a non-residential building or structure.”
In July 2012, the Ministry of Culture approved the restoration task, after which emergency repair work began. According to reports from Mohylanka, these works were carried out with private donor funds from a Ukrainian philanthropist.
At the end of December 2023, the head of the “Servant of the People” party, Olena Shulyak, addressed the State Inspectorate of Architecture and Urban Planning demanding an inspection of the work taking place at the Bratski Cells. The basis for this was a letter from Dmytro Perov, an assistant to a deputy of the Kyiv City Council from the “Servant of the People” faction, who signed as the head of the NGO “Spadshchyna”. In reality, another person is the head of this NGO, who did not request an inspection of the works at the Bratski Cells.
On March 26th, the Ministry of Restoration announced that a fine had been imposed on the client of the works, amounting to over 90,000 hryvnias. The official reason cited was the refusal to admit inspectors to the construction site.
At the end of March, the Espresso channel reported instances of censorship. They offered to remove the column by Georgiy Mohylnyi, an analyst of the public initiative “Holka”, who had studied documents regarding the restoration of the cells, from the channel’s website for money.
