The battle for Kampа. When will the Kyiv Regional Council create the park, and when will the prosecutor’s office work on the criminal case?

This is the story of how in Bucha, under the bullets of titushkas, the community saves centuries-old oaks and hornbeams. The land in the green suburb of Kyiv has always been precious, and battles have been fought for it. Among those who defended the forest here was Yura Yermolaev. He was shot during the occupation by the Russians in March 2022. Yura said:

“If not me, then at least our children will have a forest or a park here.”

Unfortunately, Yura is no longer with us, and this area still does not have the status of a memorial park for which we fought together. To achieve this, deputies of the Kyiv Regional Council need to vote to establish the memorial park.

We have already achieved a decision from the Bucha City Council. The forest is gaining the status of a memorial park. But this is not enough for it to take effect; the support of regional deputies is needed. The issue needs to be brought to the session before the developers have a chance to damage the trees. A relevant appeal to the region was sent by MP Yulia Ovchinnikova (“Servant of the People”).

Olha Vasylevska-Smagliuk, a member of parliament, also advocates for the protection of the green zone from developers, and since the struggle has been going on for almost two decades, Olha Chervakova, a former member of parliament, has also helped here.

Roman Tytykalo, the head of the environmental commission of the Kyiv Regional Council (European Solidarity party), supports the initiative to create a new object of the reserve fund:

“Over the past three years, we have created 70 new objects in the Kyiv region. This year, I requested data for other regions. In other regions of Ukraine, 3-4, maximum 5, are being created. Therefore, Kyiv region is an absolute leader. As for this green zone, we generally support everything that comes to us. There has not been a single case where we did not support an object. The problem here is that there is a Department of Ecology of the Regional State Administration, which is supposed to process these documents for us. I know that these documents are currently under consideration there. I hope that they will be transferred to the commission in the near future and then to the session.”

Forests have always allowed for defense or partisan activities. Thus, the Bilichanskyy forest near the capital, which the authorities of the Kotsiubynske village want to destroy, became the defense line of Kyiv and helped the Armed Forces of Ukraine defend the million-strong city… Once there were many more forests near Irpin and Bucha. And if they were not cut down so much, the Armed Forces of Ukraine would have had more chances to defend these cities near the capital, and enemy equipment would have had less space for maneuvers and entry.

But developers, considering that the Bucha district near the capital, continued to cut down and plan to cut down green areas to build cheaper housing. The confrontation with the community during attempts to cut down the forest near “Kampa” was so severe that several years ago it led to street shootouts.

No one has been held accountable for them yet, and this gives developer Myronchuk, who plans to continue building high-rises here, a free hand. The local NGO “Eko-Bucha” in its appeal demands from the Prosecutor General’s Office to finally bring criminal cases to court.

In 2018, “titushky” near “Kampa” opened fire on the police and passersby in the courtyard of a residential building.

I would like to remind you that the conflict between the authorities, who were then advocating for the interests of developers, and the Bucha community began almost 20 years ago when deputies approved (with 23 out of 33 votes) the lease of nearly 3 hectares of land to developer Sergiy Arefiev.

The centuries-old oak still hasn’t been granted monument status

Later, the plot was subleased to the developer Anton Myronchuk. Myronchuk (LLC “Comfort LTD” – the lessee) decided to build a residential complex called “Wonderwood” here. The advertising cynically promised the atmosphere of a “oak grove.” However, LUN did not recommend investing here. By the way, Myronchuk is one of the partners of the scandalous former mayor of Irpin, Volodymyr Karplyuk. They are co-founders of “Molodist”.

While the prosecutor’s office was in litigation with the developer, the developer repeatedly attempted to cut down trees near “Kampa,” but residents stood in the way. Of course, as often happens in the Pripyat area, it didn’t go without beating activists.

The greatest cynicism on the part of the developer was when Kyiv region was defending itself from the enemy invasion in the spring of 2022. Myronchuk, through “black” registrars, registered the plot without the necessary documents. Fortunately, the Ministry of Justice canceled the registration, and the registrar eventually lost the license.

Currently, the developer, in order to gain control over the green zone, has appealed to the Regional Economic Court and won. By the court’s decision, he wants to force the Bucha City Council to sign a lease agreement with him for this plot. The controversial decision in favor of the developer was made by Judge Nataliia Shevchuk.

The court decision did not take effect because the city council filed an appeal.

The composition of the court has already been appointed.

We hope that the regional prosecutor’s office will also get involved here, and that the actions of Judge Shevchuk will be properly evaluated by the Higher Qualification Commission of Judges. And we will keep track of the legal proceedings.

Specially for “Left Bank“.