Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Kyiv City Council did not dare to hand over the building on Kyrylivska Street to Pavlo Fuks, 103
The city leadership has for now “changed its mind” about transferring for rent to the charitable organization (NGO) “Babyn Yar Memory Fund” premises of almost 4 thousand sq. m on Kyrylivska St., 103 (Podilskyi district), which are on the balance sheet of the Clinical Hospital “Psychiatry.”
One possible reason for this was the public outcry surrounding the event: some Kyiv City Council deputies were outraged that during the war the city authorities were planning to “gift” communal property to persons associated with the Russian oligarchy – Pavlo Fuks (in the collage on the right), Mikhail Fridman and German Khan. Thus, the question of creating in the capital the “Museum of the History of the Forgetting of the Babyn Yar Tragedy,” which was planned to be located at the aforementioned site, has for now been shelved.
As KV has learned, on 14 May 2022 of this year, during a plenary session the Kyiv City Council removed from consideration the draft decision “On inclusion in the List of second-type nonresidential premises of communal property of the territorial community of the city of Kyiv” (No. 08/231-3132/PR dated 20 August 2021).
The applicants of this document were the deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration (KSCA) for the exercise of self-government powers, Oleksandr Kharchenko (in the collage on the left), and the Department of Communal Property of the KSCA.
According to KV sources within the deputy corps, Kyiv’s deputy mayor and secretary of the city council Volodymyr Bondarenko did not officially explain why the matter should be removed from the session agenda. Deputies interviewed by the editorial office voiced several versions.
Thus, some elected representatives said the issue was not considered because it lacks support in the deputy corps. At the same time, they said there are people in the Kyiv City Council who are categorically against approving this document because of its “Russian undertone,” while other deputies think the matter needs to be examined in detail. Meanwhile, several deputies told KV’s journalist that in fact this draft decision should not have been considered at all and ended up on the agenda by accident – due to someone’s “technical carelessness.”
However, the last “hypothesis” does not look very convincing, because the activity of the current IX convocation of the Kyiv City Council shows that there are no accidental draft decisions.
What the draft decision provides for
The document states that the Kyiv City Council plans to include a nonresidential building (a production workshop) with a total area of 3,9 thousand sq. m on Kyrylivska St., 103, in the List of communal property objects of the second type. This means that in the future the premises may be transferred for free rent without holding an auction. The potential tenant of the specified object is already known – the NGO “Babyn Yar Memory Fund” intends to obtain use of this nonresidential building and to arrange at this location the “Museum of the History of the Forgetting of the Babyn Yar Tragedy.” The lease term is not specified in the draft decision – likely it should be set and approved by the Kyiv City Council’s property commission.
According to the document, the manager of the specified object is the communal noncommercial enterprise (CNC) “Clinical Hospital ‘Psychiatry’,” to which this building is assigned under the right of operational management. The hospital administration informed the Department of Communal Property of the KSCA that it does not use this object and stated that transferring this building to lease would save it from idleness.
The draft decision clarifies that the production workshop on Kyrylivska St., 103, is not a cultural heritage monument. However, at the same address, literally “next door,” there are two such monuments – the Kyrylivsky Monastery complex (buildings of the 12th and 18th centuries) and the Hospital House where the Ukrainian Soviet psychiatrist, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR V. Protopopov worked (building of 1912–13 years).
It should be noted that in the legal opinion prepared for this draft decision by the Legal Support Department of the Kyiv City Council, it is stated that the initiative to transfer the specified building for rent contradicts current Ukrainian legislation. In particular, Kyiv City Council’s lawyers drew attention to the fact that, according to the Procedure for leasing state and communal property (approved by Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 483 dated 3 June 2020), property of healthcare institutions can be leased either for placement of the corresponding institutions (for placement of a psychiatric hospital, – KV), or only while preserving the activity profile for the specific target purpose (for placement of a workshop, – KV).
That is, there can be no museum on hospital grounds. In this regard, the Legal Support Department of the Kyiv City Council returned this document without approval.
Deputy’s warning
On the eve of the above-mentioned plenary session, on 13 May 2022 of this year, Kyiv City Council deputy Alina Mykhailova (Holos faction) criticized on social media the idea of transferring the building on Kyrylivska St., 103, to the NGO “Babyn Yar Memory Fund” for rent.
She recalled that this project is controlled by Russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman, Pavlo Fuks and German Khan. According to Alina Mykhailova, in the museum planned to be located on the hospital territory they would tell stories “about bad Banderites who ate Jews and committed crimes.”
“What the hell? Tens of thousands of our citizens risk their lives every day, thousands give their lives in the war with Russia. For what? So you hand our city over to the Russians in the rear? The public sponsors of this project are Russians Fridman, Fuks and Khan. Figures on sanction lists of half the world, including sanctions by the National Security and Defense Council. Russians. Russian money, Russian narratives, Russian interests. And now, in May 2022, when the russkies are committing a literal genocide of Ukrainians, the Kyiv City Council is going to spit in the souls of all the killed and tortured. Continue to indulge the Russians and let them into our cultural space. But money doesn’t smell? 4000 square meters of a communal hospital – to Russian propagandists. We are less afraid of Moscow lice than of Ukrainian maggots,” the deputy emphasized.
Mykhailova said that the Kyiv City Council planned to consider the draft decision at the beginning of February this year, but then several deputies were able to prevent this. Therefore she urged her colleagues under no circumstances to support the matter in the session hall.
“I appeal to colleagues: behind all this are those who intend to push the green buttons. Society is watching you closely. A large part of it is now in uniform and armed fighting the ruscists, but we will return – and we will ask about every scandal and every ‘rishalovo.’ You won’t like it. Kyiv is not a place for ruscists and corrupt schemes. Neither during the war nor after victory. For those who still do not understand this – we know how to explain. But I advise you to understand it in advance,” Alina Mykhailova wrote.
Scandalous beneficiaries
According to the analytical system YouControl, the NGO “Babyn Yar Memory Fund” was founded in June 2005. Currently the organization’s head is listed as Anna Furman, the founder is the NGO “Charitable Fund ‘Holocaust Memorial Babyn Yar,’” and the ultimate beneficiaries are Kyiv residents Rostyslav Matyash and Ihor Yurchenko.
At the same time, YouControl reports that the NGO “Babyn Yar Memory Fund” is related to Pavlo Fuks’s group of companies, which unites about 57 enterprises mainly engaged in natural gas extraction. The key person of this group is the businessman, philanthropist and member of the supervisory board of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center Pavlo Fuks. Recall that he was born in Kharkiv and is known to Kyiv residents as the “owner of Kyiv Metro’s debts.”
As KV has repeatedly reported, for more than a year the fate of Babyn Yar—the site of mass executions and burials of civilians, including Jews, during World War II—has been actively discussed in the capital.
Thus, the NGO “Charitable Fund ‘Holocaust Memorial Babyn Yar’” plans to create at the site the “Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center.” The premises on Kyrylivska St., 103, where the “Museum of the History of the Forgetting of the Babyn Yar Tragedy” is planned to open, are located literally 1 kilometer from Babyn Yar. In opposition to this initiative, Ukraine’s Cabinet bodies are developing a concept for a memorial complex that should become part of the national historical and memorial reserve “Babyn Yar,” created by the state in 2007. Supporters of these two ideas conduct an active debate accompanied by mutual accusations.
For example, representatives of Ukrainian civil society, among whom was the head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities (Vaad) of Ukraine, Yosef Zissels, called the idea of creating a “private” memorial complex unacceptable because of its “unacceptable ideology” and because it would be located on the territory of the former Kyrylivske cemetery. They also pointed out that the Russian billionaires associated with the NGO “Charitable Fund ‘Holocaust Memorial Babyn Yar’” are actually interested in provoking outrage and protests from civil society. The purpose of all this, in the view of civic activists, is to impose propagandistic lies on the world about “horrible antisemitism in Ukraine.”
In turn, representatives of the NGO “Charitable Fund ‘Holocaust Memorial Babyn Yar’” presented their arguments. Among other things, they stated that the Kyrylivske cemetery no longer exists either legally or factually, and also recalled the need to honor the memory of the tragedy at Babyn Yar. At the same time, the charitable organization confirmed that among the project’s financial donors are Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman, German Khan and Pavlo Fuks, but justified this by noting that all these people were born in Ukraine.
Note that the idea of this charitable organization has repeatedly received public support from Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko. For example, in 2018 he signed, on behalf of the city authorities, a Memorandum of Cooperation on creating the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center in Kyiv. And in 2020 his KSCA subordinates proposed that the Kyiv City Council allocate three land plots on Yuri Illienko St. totaling about 1,1 hectares to the NGO “Babyn Yar Memory Fund,” which, according to members of the public, would serve to implement plans to create a “private” Holocaust Memorial. However, the Kyiv City Council in 2020 did not adopt the corresponding decisions.
Note that the Department of Communal Property of the KSCA has been headed by Andrii Hudz since 5 November 2014. Since 2 April 2021, the activity of this department has been overseen by the above-mentioned deputy head of the KSCA Oleksandr Kharchenko. He was also responsible for this structure from 3 September 2020 until 31 December 2020.
At the same time, during martial law all powers in Kyiv belong to the Kyiv City Military Administration (KCMA), which since the beginning of March 2022 has been headed by General Mykola Zhyrnov. The head of the KCMA has two deputies, one of whom is the head of the KSCA, Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Recall that video broadcasts of plenary sessions and city council committees are not held during martial law, and the decisions adopted by deputies are published only after being signed by Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko and not always in full. Therefore, KV currently has to gather information about the actions of the city authorities from various sources, including within the deputy corps.
Also note that Pavlo Fuks’s influence on pre-war Kyiv life was significant—through his friendly relations with Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Those relations were not affected even by the sanctions imposed on Fuks by the National Security and Defense Council in June 2021.
KyivVlada
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