Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Despite disputes and scandals: court allowed construction near Chkalovskyi Square without “protection approvals” from Kyiv City State Administration
The Institute of Geological Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine continues its attempts to prove the legality of building a multifunctional complex near Chkalovskyi Square – on Oles Honchar Street, 55-B (Shevchenkivskyi district of the capital).
Recently this institution was able, through the District Administrative Court of Kyiv (OASK), to challenge an order and a fine decision issued by the Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA), which demanded coordinating these works with the department. There are several reasons for such officials’ claims, in particular – the construction site is within the Central Historical Area of Kyiv and contains an urban planning and architectural monument of local significance. At the same time, the project’s implementation process has been accompanied by corporate disputes. As it turned out, two companies from the orbit of controversial developer Vlada Molchanova (in the collage on the left), which are involved in this construction based on investment agreements, are trying to resolve financing issues for the works through the courts.
As KV has learned, 26 September 2022 the OASK satisfied the claim of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of Ukraine challenging the actions of the Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA).
The case materials state that the plaintiff sought to declare unlawful and cancel the department’s order of 25 August 2021, as well as the department’s decision “On the Imposition of Financial Sanctions for Violations of Ukrainian Legislation in the Field of Protection of Cultural Heritage” of 18 October 2021. The Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the KCSA has thirty days to file an appeal against the court’s decision with the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal.
The court decision states that last summer representatives of the Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the KCSA conducted a visual inspection of the plot on Honchar Street, 55-B, where the Institute of Geological Sciences of the NAS of Ukraine is carrying out construction of a multifunctional complex. It was established that the developers had not obtained approval for the works from that department – despite the fact that the construction site is located within the Central Historical Area of Kyiv and contains the urban planning and architectural monument of local significance “Building of the Kyiv Branch of the Russian Technical Society, 1911-1914 years” (Oles Honchar Street, 55-B).
As a result of that inspection, an order was issued requiring the Institute to, within one month, submit to the Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the KCSA scientific and design documentation on measures aimed at preserving the monument, scientific and design documentation on carrying out construction works, and so on. Subsequently, the same department issued a decision imposing a fine totaling 35,7 thousand hryvnias – for failure to comply with requirements regarding protection, preservation, maintenance, use, restoration, rehabilitation of monuments, as well as for not complying with the aforementioned order.
Scandalous background
As early as 2 March 2003 the Institute of Geological Sciences of the NAS of Ukraine and Delinvest LLC concluded a shared-equity construction agreement for Oles Honchar Street, 55-B. Exactly what and on what terms this state institution decided to build together with the private legal entity is not precisely known, since that agreement is not publicly available.
Soon after, the institute began collecting approvals necessary to implement the project. 12 February 2004 the Kyiv City Council by decision No. 43/1253 approved transferring the land plot on Oles Honchar Street, 55-B, to permanent use by the Institute of Geological Sciences of the NAS of Ukraine, with an area of 0,3265 ha for the operation and maintenance of administrative buildings and utility structures (cadastral number – 8000000000:88:055:0011).
Two years later, 20 October 2006 the KCSA, by its order No. 1547 (not publicly available – KV), granted the Institute of Geological Sciences of the NAS of Ukraine permission to carry out construction on Oles Honchar Street, 55-B “in accordance with the project-estimate documentation agreed and approved in the prescribed manner.” In fact, this meant approval of construction without changing the site’s designated use.
2 February 2009 the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate of Kyiv issued the Institute of Geological Sciences of the NAS of Ukraine a building permit for an office center on Oles Honchar Street, 55-B. That document is also not publicly available, so the initial data for this construction object are currently unknown. Actual construction works on this territory began much later – only in the second half of 2016. And it was then that they drew the attention of relevant authorities, some Kyiv City Council deputies, and the public.
For example, 6 March 2017 the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine inspected the plot on Oles Honchar Street, 55-B. Officials found that construction on this territory was being carried out in violation of Ukrainian legislation in the field of protection of cultural heritage. A month later, in 14 April, the Ministry of Culture issued an order to stop the works.
The main reasons for such actions by ministry officials were the same as those the Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the KCSA cited in 2021. The Institute of Geological Sciences disagreed with the Ministry of Culture’s conclusions and filed a suit with OASK to declare that order unlawful and cancel it. In particular, they argued that construction works had been agreed as early as 2006-2007 when the Main Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the KCSA and the Institute of Archaeology of the NAS of Ukraine approved them.
However, the judges of the first and appellate instances did not find such arguments convincing. Among other things, the courts found that the developers planned to erect a facility whose parameters differed from those previously agreed. For example, it was argued that in 2005 the State Service for the Protection of Cultural Heritage approved a historical and urban planning justification for construction at that address for a 12-story building with a maximum height of 47 meters, while in 2016 Delinvest LLC submitted to the Ministry of Culture a historical and urban planning justification for construction of a 17-story building with a height of 67 meters.
However, later, 27 February 2019 the Cassation Administrative Court canceled the decisions of the lower courts and fully satisfied the Institute of Geological Sciences of the NAS of Ukraine’s claims. That judicial verdict was justified, among other things, by the Institute proving to the judges that merely submitting a “new” historical and urban planning justification does not indicate that the site on Oles Honchar Street, 55-B, is intended for construction of objects with different parameters. The judges also accepted the plaintiff’s arguments that the boundaries of Kyiv’s historical area at the time of the Ministry of Culture’s inspection had not been officially approved.
At the same time, some Kyiv City Council deputies opposed the construction on Oles Honchar Street, 55-B. In November 2018 members of the “Kyiv Team” deputy group, Olga Balytska and Andriy Osadchuk, submitted to the city council a draft appeal to the Institute of Geological Sciences of the NAS of Ukraine and to the academy itself requesting suspension of the construction works. The deputies noted, in particular, that the plot borders the fountain of the Kyiv water supply on the territory of Chkalovskyi Square (Oles Honchar Street, 55), which is a monument of history and culture of local significance, and also falls within the protection zones of national monuments “Cultural layer of ‘Yaroslav’s City’” and the buffer zone of the UNESCO World Heritage site “Kyiv: Saint Sophia Cathedral and related monastic buildings, Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.” However, the municipal authorities did not approve sending that appeal.
According to the Our Money portal, 28 August 2021 the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate amended the permit for construction works on Honchar Street, 55-B in terms of development intentions – instead of an office center, construction of a 12-story multifunctional complex was approved, which was to include 38 apartments.
That same week, 1 September 2021 a contract was concluded between Delinvest LLC and Trade and Industrial Company (TPC) “Kaskad-Impex” LLC regarding investment in the construction of the complex on Oles Honchar Street, 55-B. This agreement is not publicly available, so there is currently no information about all the terms of cooperation between these companies. However, court registry records show that TPC “Kaskad-Impex” LLC “undertook to participate in the investment of construction” – to finance construction of 430,01 sq.m. of this complex (two one-room and one three-room apartments) for 17,4 million hryvnias, in exchange for which the company was to receive that part of the building into its ownership.
It should be noted that TPC “Kaskad-Impex” LLC is currently trying to challenge the above agreement in commercial court. The company argues that the intentions to build a multifunctional complex on Oles Honchar Street, 55-B, do not comply with urban planning documentation (the land’s designated purpose, recall, is “for operation and maintenance of administrative buildings and utility structures”), that Delinvest LLC did not obtain the Ministry of Culture’s permission to carry out earthworks, and so on. Why all these circumstances were not considered when signing the agreement is not specified in the case materials. The Commercial Court of Kyiv on 2 November last year denied TPC “Kaskad-Impex” LLC’s claim; the case is currently being reviewed by the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal.
Recall that another high-profile construction is planned near Chkalovskyi Square, on Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street, 80-B. There, on two plots with a total area of 0,23 ha, the land lessee – MZhK “Obolon” LLC – intends to erect a multi-story building with parking. The city public has repeatedly protested these works. The Kyiv City Council verbally supported activists’ demands and even approved in first reading a draft decision to terminate the land lease agreements. However, the document has not been finally adopted.
Who’s who
According to the analytical system Youcontrol, the Kyiv-based Delinvest LLC was founded in February 2005. The company’s director is listed as Iryna Zubenko, and the ultimate beneficiary is Kyiv resident Yuliia Kharchenko, who owns this LLC through the Cypriot company Sparenton Limited.
TPC “Kaskad-Impex” LLC was registered in Kyiv in September 1995. The company’s director is Ihor Sorochynskyi, the founders are Kyiv resident Bohdana Tymoshchuk (in the collage on the right) and a company from the Marshall Islands “Agro Systems LTD.” The official owner of TPC “Kaskad-Impex” LLC is Kyiv resident Oksana Lymaniuk.
The aforementioned Yuliia Kharchenko was an assistant to Verkhovna Rada deputy of the VI convocation Mykola Tomenko (elected from All-Ukrainian Union “Fatherland”). In turn, Bohdana Tymoshchuk is a Kyiv City Council deputy of the current IX convocation from All-Ukrainian Union “Fatherland” and head of that party’s Podil district branch in the capital. In addition, during the presidential campaign of 2019, Bohdana Tymoshchuk was a trusted representative of candidate Yuliia Tymoshenko in the same Podil district of Kyiv.
Kharchenko and Tymoshchuk are clearly well acquainted. For example, in 2016-2020 they were co-owners of a number of companies, including SIA LLC, Spar-Invest LLC, and Progressbud LLC (currently Yuliia Kharchenko is the sole beneficiary of these companies). In addition, Bohdana Tymoshchuk was, until 2020, one of the ultimate beneficiaries of the aforementioned Delinvest LLC. Therefore there are reasonable doubts that she was unaware of potential restrictions that could hinder construction on Oles Honchar Street, 55-B.
Moreover, as KV reported, Kharchenko and Tymoshchuk at different times were co-owners of several companies related to the “BT Invest” group, whose key figures are Lithuanian citizens Raimondas Tumenas, Maryna Pozniakova and Agne Ruzgiene. This group, among other things, manages the Novus retail chain and implements projects of the developer Stolitsa Group, whose co-founder is the controversial Vlada Molchanova. Various sources previously named her a key financial donor to the Kyiv office of the All-Ukrainian Union “Fatherland” party and a partner of the scandalous businessman Denys Komarnytskyi, whom the public considers the “watcher of Kyiv.”
The Institute of Geological Sciences of the NAS of Ukraine has been headed by Stella Shekhunova since September 2021. She served as acting director of the institute from December 2020 following the death of the institute’s head Petro Hozhyk, who had held the position since 1997. The NAS of Ukraine has been headed by Anatolii Zahorodnii since October 2020. Previously, from 1962 until his death in August 2020, the academy’s president was Yevhen Paton.
The Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the KCSA has been headed by Oleksandr Nykoriak since 7 September 2018. The director of the Department of Land Resources of the KCSA, since 29 June 2021, is Valentyna Pelykh.
The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (until 2019 this structure dealt exclusively with cultural matters, after which for a year it also performed functions in the field of sports) has been headed since 4 June 2020 by Oleksandr Tkachenko – former general director of the TV channel “1+1” and former People’s Deputy of the current IX convocation of the Verkhovna Rada (elected from the Servant of the People party list, where he chaired the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy).
Author: Ivan Kulyk
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Попри спори і скандали: суд дозволив будівництво біля Чкалівського скверу без “охоронних погоджень” з КМДА". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.