The pastoral life of Chausove-2, a hamlet that sits in the steppes of Mykolaiv Oblast, suddenly ended on June 18 with the arrival of a group of thugs. Their attempt to occupy and eventually takeover the land ended in gunshots being fired, and blood-soaked wounds caused by air rifles and other pneumatic firearms, coupled with screams and swearing.
Batkivshchyna party member Arkady Kornatsky claims to own the land in question. Local officials and police say the altercation was between two firms that lay claim over the territory.
Kornatsky ran in last year’s Oct. 28 parliamentary elections in troubled constituency 132. His agribusiness has since been plagued with legal problems.
Election officials initially declared him the winner of the Mykolaiv Oblast single-mandate constituency, but the results were later canceled after election documents disappeared during violent clashes that ensued after the vote count. Kornatsky, who said he feared arrest, fled with his family to the U.S. and only returned in April to contest the parliamentary seat in a re-vote.
The director and accountant of his company farm had been under investigation for tax evasion.
On the morning of June 18, some of his employees noticed some 40 trucks and a dozen combine harvesters driving towards the fields that belonged to their company, and then start to harvest grain. At the same time, about 80 people attempted to enter the territory of Kornatsky’s firm, according to his own estimate. Later during the day, he believes the conflict grew to involve some 200 people from each side.
A fight broke out after workers and guards at the company prevented the alleged intruders from entering. As a result, five people were wounded by pump action guns.
The alleged trespassers arrived together with Partner-Agro company representatives, who insisted they were the current leaseholders of the land. Kornatsky, whose company has worked the land for years, says Partner-Agro is fictitious, and is basically a company raider tool.
Nobody from Partner-Agro was available for comment.
Kornatsky said the alleged raiders were tied in with Mykola Kruglov, Mykolaiv’s governor, and Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka. Both denied all allegations.
Local police chief Valentyn Parsenyuk said the conflict arose because the two farming companies had clashed over who owns the harvest. A criminal case was opened to investigate the brawls and shooting.
Kornatsky and his family are beneficiaries of Agrofirma Kornatskyh LLC in Mykolaiv Oblast. In the mid-1990s, the land that earlier belonged to collective farms were parceled out and allotted to farmers, including his family. The Kornatskys later bought land from others, amassing a land bank of about 1,700 hectares around the Chausove-2 village.
They also leased land from other people, but not the parcel involved in the dispute.
However, in 2001 a local court annulled the family’s deeds to the 1,700 hectares of land, which some lawyers and civic activists insist was due to a technical flaw. The laws governing land ownership issues, and particularly, documents that certify ownership, are controversial and are interpreted in different ways by Kornatsky and his opponents.
After the ruling the Kornatskys continued to farm the land unhindered until the October parliamentary election.
In autumn 2012 the local government suddenly changed the land’s status and distributed it to almost 800 local, public sector employees, including local doctors at a state-run clinic. In December, these people were forced by their employers to sign land-lease agreements with Partner-Agro, according to a court ruling from the Mykolaiv Oblast Administrative Court, that is available in the national database.
Partner-Agro was registered just months before, in July 2012, the same month when the parliamentary election campaign kicked off.
Kruglov, Mykolayiv’s president-appointed governor, insists all operations involving the land are legal and Kornatsky is at fault.
Kyiv Post staff writer Kateryna Kapliuk can be reached at [email protected].
