Letter to the World Bank

Country Director of World Bank for Ukraine

Mrs. Satu Kahkonen

Copy: IMF and EU

Honorable Mrs. Kahkonen

The United Headquarters for Ukrainian Land Preservation would like to inform you of the following principles that should be taken into account in the World Bank's further activities in Ukraine:

Agricultural land in Ukraine has a special and exclusive status. According to the current Constitution of Ukraine, Articles 13 and 14, agricultural land is the main national treasure and ownership is for Ukrainian people only. Historically, the Ukrainian tradition has been to treat the land not as a means of production or as an economic category, but as the space of life given by God. Therefore, the set of beliefs regarding land does not allow its exploitation just for the purpose of profit, and even more prohibits its transformation into a commodity.

This philosophy as reflected in the legal and constitutional requirements in Ukraine prohibits the direct or indirect acquisition by foreigners of ownership of agricultural land.

The President, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine have no right and the people have not delegated to them the power to sell agricultural land to foreign residents. On the contrary, government agencies are obliged to use the full power given to them to protect the status and property rights of Ukrainians regarding land - Article 14 of the Constitution of Ukraine.

According to Article 5 of the Constitution, the supreme power - the sovereign - in Ukraine is the Ukrainian people and only the people can change the status of the land or the general principles of the Constitution of Ukraine. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine does not have such powers!

The special relationship of the Ukrainian people with the land, as spiritualized substance, cannot be changed by propaganda, coercion or manipulation. This is the very essence of the Ukrainian people. It is known that more than 73% of Ukrainians oppose the opening of the sale of agricultural land and more than 80% are against the sale of it to foreigners.

We would like to draw attention to the fact that the attempts of government officials or their foreign assistants to in any way to start the planned sale of land is not just a violation of the Constitution of Ukraine, but represents a constitutional coup that will lead to a brutal and bloody confrontation in the country.

In recent years, the activities of the World Bank Group in Ukraine in the field of land relations have contributed to the anti-constitutional and anti-national plans of the previous and present government to launch the sale of national wealth - land. Despite the Constitution and its negative public attitude, the World Bank has included in its COUNTRY PARTNERSHIP FRAMEWORK with Ukraine for 2017-2020 the implementation of the provisions that destroy our constitutional right: the introduction of an open land market, among other things for foreigners; complete abolition of the moratorium in the absence of the necessary account of vast tracts of land; prevailing conditions for large capital managers in a corrupt state administration system and others. Moreover, the World Bank Group has made further lending to Ukraine conditional on the fulfillment of a mandatory condition - lifting the moratorium and launching an open (read unconstitutional) land market. Your COUNTRY PARTNERSHIP FRAMEWORK is lawbreaking and, given the government's dependence on external lending, is seen as a dictate for the unconstitutional sale of our land.

Demands to the World Bank:

1) Stop efforts to open an unconstitutional land market in Ukraine and remove the relevant portions from the COUNTRY PARTNERSHIP FRAMEWORK

2) Make appropriate proposals to the inexperienced President of Ukraine, who has a parliamentary majority in the Verkhovna Rada

3) Cease campaigning with MPs and funded civic activists

4) Revise the COUNTRY PARTNERSHIP FRAMEWORK with Ukraine to only include conditions for lease of agricultural land and development of small farming

5) Take into account that the redemption of private land can be carried out only once by the state with the subsequent lease to small farmers

We warn that Ukrainian society will defend the Constitution of Ukraine and the rights of the people to the main national wealth and will not allow the start of the planned land market. The corresponding demands for termination of anti-national actions have already been put forward and brought to the President and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

We recall that the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,.”

United Headquarters for Ukrainian Land Preservation:

Victor Zherdytskyi

Stepan Khmara

Viktor Shyshkin

Mykola Stryzhak

Gennady Novikov

Ivan Tomych

Nazar Mukhachov