After the Euromaidan Revolution came to a bloody end in February 2014, local residents redeveloped an abandoned building site not far from Kyiv’s Independence Square in honor of 100 people that were shot dead, most by police.
Volunteers created a clean, green space for public use,
but now, like several other sites of historical significance in Kyiv, a
development company who owns the land wants to replace it with a hotel and
office complex.
The land is a part of the UNESCO protected St Sophia’s
Cathedral, a nearby monastery, and was illegally sold by the Kyiv City Council
in 2007.
The design of the hotel and office complex by
architectural firm, Archymatyka, commissioned by Green Plaza Limited in 2011.
The two volunteer organizations behind the square: Misto
Sad and the Land of the Heros of the Heavenly Hundred as well as the Kyiv City
Administration will go to court against the Kyiv City Council and the
developers on Dec. 1 in an attempt to return the land to the city.
Named unofficially as the Heavenly Hundred Square, it is host to films, lectures and family events during the summer months free of
charge.
A mural by Alexander Farto of Serhiy Nigoyan,
the first protester to be killed by police in January 2014, looks over the
square the square.
The idea for the square was inspired by the protesters who
dismantled the fence surrounding the site to strengthen the barricades on
Maidan and uncovered a de facto rubbish dump.
“(On Feb. 18 the protest movement’s) self-defence forces,
helped by residents of the surrounding buildings, dismantled the fence and told
us ‘something must be done with this space’,” said Zhenia Kuleba, who runs
Misto Sad and witnessed the fence dismantling.
Kuleba lives in one of the nearby buildings and like other
residents of the street, which runs directly off Independent Square, was active
in helping the protesters.
“We don’t know what happened to the self-defense guys
(after they returned to their positions). We think one of them may have died,”
Kuleba told the Kyiv Post.
The cleanup started days after the protests ended in March
2014. At first it was just local residents but in the end people came from
across Kyiv, according to Kuleba.
Misto Sad tried repeatedly to contact the owners, Green
Plaza Ltd., but their phone calls were never returned.
“We can only speculate as to why they didn’t build for
eight years. It could be because of the nature of the land, one expert told me
that below there are old underground tunnels linked to the monastery. It could
also be because they didn’t have the money after the economic collapse
(2007-2009),” said Kuleba.
The Kyiv city authorities have successfully invalidated
rental contracts which held part of Mykhalivksa Square and even part of
Mykhalivska Street issued under former mayor Leonid Chernovetsky but the land
the Heavenly Hundred Square occupies was sold into private hands, which
complicates the situation.
An investigation in January
2015 conducted by journalists at Nashi Hroshi alleged that
Oleksandr Suprunenko, the brother of Vyachislav Suprunenko, Chernovetsky’s
former son-in-law, is the beneficiary behind the development company.
The Ukrainian Company Registry shows that Green Plaza is co-owned by
UK-registered company Fortax Development Group. Fortax Development is owned by
GPP Developers Ltd., also a UK company, which is in turn owned by Global Prime
Properties Group Ltd, a British Virgin Islands-registered company.
GPP Developers Ltd shares the same UK address as Global
Prime Properties Limited which owns a company called Proprio-O. But between
2007 and 2011, Proprio-O was owned by two other companies Ekvitas and Paladis,
the co-shareholder of which was Oleksandr Suprunenko.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko promised voters that he would
return the land to city as part of his election campaign. Kuleba agreed that
the Kyiv City authorities have so far been “active”, but she said only
tomorrow’s court hearing will show the extent of their determination.
“Developers are don’t care about squares, children’s
playground or remembering those killed. But people aren’t indifferent. And
times have changed,” Kuleba wrote on Ukrainska Pravda on the court case.
Kyiv Post Staff Writer Isobel
Koshiw can be reached at [email protected]
