Kyiv, November 11, 2014. On November 13, the Kyiv city council will review the issue of providing land plots to the families of soldiers, who died or got wounded during the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO). Such statement was released by Oleksiy Reznikov, secretary of the Kyiv city council during his press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. We are talking about the land plots with an area of 500-700 m2, while the maximum area, allowed by the Ukrainian law is 1,000 m2, noted Mr. Reznikov.
The Kyiv city official said that today, mayor Vitaliy Klitchko together with members of the city council went to Bykivnya, which is to the east of Kyiv. This land will be transferred to the families of the soldiers who died or were injured during the ATO. Oleksiy Reznikov explained that this land had been reserved for the migrants, who had to leave their homes due to the construction of the Podilsko-Voskresenskiy bridge. This land was designed specifically for private constructions and at the moment remains “a property of the Kyiv territorial community,” he said. In addition, the representatives of the Kyiv city council intend to hold negotiations with members of the Kyiv Region Council on giving out land to the veterans of the ATO.
Oleksiy Reznikov noted, that the land will be transferred to the soldiers who are currently serving at the 12-th territorial defense battallion (Kyiv city) and Kyiv city residents, who are serving at other Ukrainian military units. According to Reznikov, the most complicated task today is to establish a priority of land transfer, because there are so many qualified people, while the land in Kyiv region is limited. Mr. Reznikov thinks that the priority should be set as follows: “to the families of soldiers, who died, then to the families of injured soldiers and finally to families of those who still serve.”
When refuting statements of project futility and the possibility of corruption, Mr. Reznikov told that this was the will of the ATO servicemen and their families. He assured that the transfer process will be transparent and that the representatives of civic society and volunteer initiatives will be able to observe it. “People will decide on their own what to build on their land – country houses, or, for example, condominiums,” said the Secretary of the Kyiv city council. Additionally, a few other issues will be discussed during the next meeting of the city council, namely the renaming of some streets in Kyiv, which remind of the totalitarian regime. It is expected that Chervonoarmiiska and Frunze streets will be given their original names, he concluded.
