Battle for Kytaiv. Building, museum or park?
The deputies voted to adopt a detailed plan for the territory of the Ocean Mall shopping and entertainment complex, which is being built on Lybidska Street by Vahif Aliiev. As part of the detailed territory plan, a part of the Lybid River will be closed to the header for the construction of a highway.
A 0.11-hectare plot at 9 Reitarska Street in the courtyard, where the aviary with common ravens that have become one of Kyiv's symbols and the " Kashtan (Chestnut) Cafe" is located, was leased to the Center for Regional Development LLC for 15 years "for the construction of tourist infrastructure" (nowadays, residential development is often labeled as apartments to get fewer permits). According to activist Dmytro Perov, the same Aliiev will be built there.
Among other things, the deputies extended the lease for the "Kyiv Vegetable Factory" in the Samburky area, near Kytaiv.
In addition, land was allocated for a parking lot on Rybalskyi, near the "5th Element".
As a result, the deputies voted very unanimously - UDAR, European Solidarity, Batkivshchyna, and Unity. Decisions were made with 70 votes.
Servants did not vote.
Over the past six months, the media have written most about the Kytaiv development, so Censor.NET will focus on it.
After all, it is the last archaeological site of the Old Russian period.
During the time of the late Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko, 5 land plots of more than 70 hectares, two of which belong directly to the Kyiv settlement, were transferred to the Kyiv Vegetable Factory, which was seen to have the interests of Viktor Pylypyshyn. And in the time of Chernovetskyi, the land was reclassified from agricultural to residential development, although as of 2001, Kytaiv was recognized as a state significant site.
- In the Kytaiv area, the factory received two plots of 4.82 hectares and 21.61 hectares;
- in the Bolharske area - 9.50 hectares;
- in the Samburky area - 23.13 hectares.
Before that, the land belonged to the Academy of Sciences, and there were gardens there.
In recent years, Andrii Vavrysh's Saga claimed to develop the land, and now Ihor Nikonov's KAN group wants to build it. In addition to the two plots directly in the vicinity of the hillfort, we are also talking about the Samburky and Bolharske areas.
Now the Prosecutor General's Office is suing for the Kytaiv lands, and it wants to take the land from communal subordination to state ownership. Activists from local residents and archaeologists propose to include these lands in the territory of the Holosiivskyi conservancy area.
But in February, the Prosecutor General's Office lost the first court case over the significant site. The Economic Court dismissed the claim to cancel the transfer of the monument for construction. There is an impression that the appeal will also be lost.
However, the Kyiv City Council has decided not to consider extending the lease until the courts are over.
The prosecutors and activists Censor.NET spoke to are convinced that the monument has been prepared for construction for years and its size was deliberately reduced.
How? Old towns usually consist of a site of ancient settlement, an ancient burial ground, and a trading quarter. And it was the settlement that was first used for "gardens" and then for construction.
"No one has been growing anything there for a long time, we have forgotten when there were gardens there. Now there are only underbrush and ragweed. And we have been fighting for our land for 2 decades," says Mia Kyrylenko.
"Old Russian cities consisted of a site of ancient settlement (a fortified part) and a trading quarter (an unfortified part) located outside the city. There were also separate ancient burial grounds. But the case of Kytaiv is even more striking, because, in my opinion, it is a monument of the Rus' era that remained with minor damage on the territory of Rus'," said archaeologist Viacheslav Baranov during the trial court hearing.
"Since independence (and not since independence, but since the nineteenth century, when the construction boom began), many archaeological sites have been destroyed. In fact, we have built up the entire territory of the ancient Russian city – the city of Yaroslav, the city of Volodymyr – we all see that the area from the Golden Gate to the Tithe Church has been built up since the nineteenth century and is being built up now. The territory of Kytaiv is the only small piece of the city that can be shown to our descendants. I am convinced that our descendants will be cursed for the three things we did or allowed to happen - (destroyed - ed.) Transcarpathian forests, amber (whose illegal extraction has been going on in recent years) and archaeological sites that we destroyed," the archaeologist emphasized.
According to the scientist, Kytaiv is a monument that needs to be preserved despite the fact that the state is not up to it. "Someday, I hope, this understanding will come and the state will come to show our children and grandchildren how our ancestors lived from the Dnieper Ukraine to the Baltic Sea," Baranov said.
The Kytaiv as an architectural monument began to be studied as early as the Russian Empire, and in the Soviet era, it was registered with the state in July 1965 by a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1966, a passport was drawn up for the monument, which contains the name of the monument, the date of the monument, the location addresses, and a detailed description.
The description reads: "The settlement appeared in the tenth century. Researchers Bidzilia, Movchan, and Kubyshev suggest that it was rebuilt by Prince Volodymyr during the construction of a defensive line around Kyiv. Alongside the site of an ancient settlement, a settlement and a ancient burial ground appeared that is directly related to it. There is also a mention of the 1910-1914 study of the Ertel site," said a representative of the Prosecutor General's Office during his speech at the court hearing.
On December 27, 2001, the archaeological monument "Kytaiv site of ancient settlement and Kurgan ancient burial ground" was registered in the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine.
This was enough for the site to be protected by the Law of Ukraine on the Protection of Cultural Heritage, and the land remained in state ownership and was used exclusively for the purpose of protecting the monuments and their scientific research.
But here, the title disappears from the mention of the site. Although archaeologist Movchan's book contains information about his research. And not only jugs were unearthed there.
However, even before the register was entered, in August 1997, the Institute of Horticulture of the Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences received from the Kyiv City State Administration the right to use 71.45 hectares of land in the Kytaiv, Samburky, and Bolharske areas. In December 2004, the Kyiv City Council leased out 59.06 hectares to the Kyiv Vegetable Factory Joint Stock Company for 15 years.
In 2009, the land's designated purpose was changed and it was transferred for construction.
Since the beginning of the trial, KAN owner Ihor Nikonov has been publicly communicating with the position that he cannot, as a businessman, be responsible for the mistakes made by officials 20 years ago.
"If the land was illegally allocated by officials, then let them be responsible. Why should a business that had nothing to do with it suffer?" the businessman said in an interview with Censor.NET.
In mid-May, the Kyiv City Council held a meeting of the Commission on the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, where the city authorities tried to push the parties to a compromise. But it failed.
Even though Nikonov said he was ready to pay for excavations on the two sites.
Archaeologists and activists are against it.
"To be honest, this is the first time I've seen an archaeologist who refuses to pay for excavations. And I am very surprised. Before that, I had talked to other archaeologists and they did not undertake to state unequivocally that something would be found there. But if there is, I would be ready to wait even 5 years and then make a museum," the developer told Censor.NET.
"Relevant research has already been conducted earlier. They revealed an archaeological layer and even some monuments. Why do it again," said activist Mia Kyrylenko in an interview with Censor.NET.
The fact is that a few years ago, at the request of the tenant, the archaeological center where Zotsenko worked at the time developed documentation of the boundaries of the monument. However, the documentation did not suit the developer. It was not approved. They began to develop alternative options with reduced boundaries that do not correspond to the actual boundaries, Censor.NET's interlocutors say.
On Facebook, Zotsenko posted excerpts from the Ministry of Culture's letters for 2020, 2021 and 2022, which show that the issue was practically not considered.
According to archaeologist Ivan Zotsenko, the idea to conduct excavations on the territory of the entire monument, voiced during the commission's meeting, is a profanation, because a state program must first be developed for this purpose.
So far, the activists have managed to collect more than 8,000 signatures from Kyiv residents against construction in the area.
At the same time, Nikonov has another strong card - a letter from the border guards informing Kyiv Mayor Klytschko that they have an agreement with the developer to build a surgical building for border guards.
As for the Samburky and Bolharske areas, to be honest, their historical value is much less - the presence of Nazi torture chambers and the border with the cemetery is more a matter of ethics than museumification.
At the same time, the issue of areas was put on the agenda when the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources was considering the expansion of Holosiivskyi Park at the expense of areas. Kyiv can hardly boast a large number of green areas and preserved ecosystems. And finally, the fear of Mysholovka residents that they will find themselves in a transport collapse as a result of the development should be voiced.
Tetiana Nikolaienko, Censor. NET
