Kyiv, 25 June 2014 – “At least UAH 800 thousand a month is required to maintain Mezhyhirya. In addition to that electricity bills need be paid starting as of June as within the previous three months we’ve already used the prepayment in the amount of UAH2 bln left from “Tantalit” Ltd,” informed Denys Tarahkotelyk, Mezhyhirya commandant at a briefing in the Ukraine Crisis Media Center. “Apart from that 72 internally displaced persons are accommodated in Mezhyhirya, half of them are children, they are provided with everything they need including 3 meals per day,” he added.
“After Viktor Yanukovych fled, we started hiring workers who preserve and safeguard the territory, take care of the animals, plant flowers etc. According to the recent information we got over 130 people working for us, average salary of each worker is around UAH3-4 thousand. The government has not paid us a penny starting from 23 February. We maintain ourselves due to the UAH 20 fee paid for entry ticket and due to the help of volunteers. We thus received UAH 250 thousand in March, UAH 550 thousand in April and UAH 1mln 250 thousand in May. However it is not enough to fully maintain Mezhyhirya,” commented Tarahkotelyk.
“That’s why it is extremely important to nationalize Mezhyhirya according to the procedure set by Ukraine’s legislation, securing in such a way its legal status, so that no one will be able to take Mezhyhirya out of state-owned property or take it away by court action,” continued Dmytro Karp, Automaidan Kyiv coordinator. “We are also of the opinion that national park needs to be established on this territory and the state-owned company managing the territory in full needs to be founded. To achieve that first of all detailed investigation needs be conducted, schemes for financing of Mezhyhirya construction as well as furniture procurement need be investigated, taking into account 25 thousand documents which the journalists scanned and passed to the Prosecutor General’s Office which need be studied,” he added.
“All investigation conducted by the Prosecutor General’s Office and by other state bodies needs to remain in the legal framework,” underlined Oleksandr Olenchenko, lawyer who was invited by the community maintaining Mezhyhirya. “We disagree with the decision of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office according to which Mezhyhirya is to be passed for maintenance to the Representative office of “Pushcha Vodytsia” state R&D production and agriculture company. According to the Parliament’s decision it’s the Cabinet of Ministers that has to work out mechanisms to manage such territories as Mezhyhirya, Sukholuchchia etc. We hope that the new Prosecutor General will be duly guided by the legislation when investigating this case,” commented Denys Tarahkotelyk.
