Who buys Ukrainian lands from Zelensky?

By Igor Ahmetov 

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky is systematically leading the country to sell off the last strategic resource-land. Such a sale cannot in any way be an act of the authorities aimed at protecting the interests of the people of the country. In this case, the only goal is to meet the requirements in the interests of large multinational corporations.  

At the moment, Ukraine is a country with the richest funds of agricultural land. Ukraine accounts for more than 60 million hectares of land adapted for agricultural activities. This is almost 6% of the territory of Europe. For obvious reasons, Ukrainian arable land is a tasty morsel for the owners of large multinational businesses and oligarchs.

At the moment, Ukraine has a moratorium on the sale of land. It has been extended since 2001, fearing a surge of discontent on the part of citizens. However, recently, everything is going to the fact that the moratorium will be lifted and the land of Ukraine will begin to be sold into private hands, which means that there will be mechanisms by which it will be used by large foreign owners. The IMF and Western partners are increasingly pressing Kiev to make a decision on the sale of land assets.

The main emphasis is on the fact that the lifting of the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land will allow Kiev in the future to receive $2 billion a year. However, in the end, the sale of land will lead to the fact that Ukrainian farmers will face more and more problems. One of these problems is the concentration of land assets in the hands of multinational corporations, with foreign owners. This will cause a surge in socio-economic tensions and lead to a shortage of food, especially high-quality food.

Companies that have views on Ukrainian land are primarily large American companies. They are characterized by a virtually barbaric approach to soil cultivation. To extract excess profits, the method of using GMOs, aggressive versions of chemical fertilizers, etc. is used.

For the United States, there is an additional opportunity to get its fertile land from Ukraine. To do this, it is enough to promote the idea of a new portion of the loan for Kiev in exchange for the rejection of the aforementioned moratorium.

And in fact, this is exactly what it is all about. In March, parliamentarians in the Verkhovna Rada adopted a controversial law on the abolition of the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land. The moratorium will expire on July 1, 2021. At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities tried to link the adoption of the law on the lifting of the moratorium with restrictions on the sale of land to foreign citizens. But the United States did not promote the lifting of the moratorium in order not to be able to buy up Ukrainian chernozems.

Of course, they can also make purchases through Ukrainian individuals, who will act only as formal owners of land. But the West needs more from Ukraine – a direct opportunity to own land with legal grounds. Therefore, the West continued to put pressure on Kiev.

To circumvent the ban on land ownership by foreign citizens, at the end of April, the Parliament adopted the draft law “On Amendments to the Land Code of Ukraine and other Legislative Acts concerning the improvement of the management system and deregulation in the field of land relations”. It is about to be signed by Vladimir Zelensky.

The bill actually proposes schemes to circumvent the existing ban on the sale of land to foreigners. One way is to change the purpose of the land. The principle is simple: agricultural land is deprived of this status, and then sold to anyone, including foreigners. They, in turn, will use them as they please. At least for the construction of military bases…

Another option, which is proposed by the bill — is the permission for foreign companies to extract minerals in certain areas, as a result of which foreigners receive a priority right to buy land. In other words, foreign companies will receive both the land and the subsoil of Ukraine – in this case.

All this suggests that the authorities of the country do not want to hear the opinions of the citizens of the country. To answer the question about the sale of agricultural land, a referendum should be held, which was initially stated by V. Zelensky. But now, as you can see, the authorities of the country are not going to hold any referendum on this topic.

At the same time, it is important to cite the data of a sociological study. On its basis, 79% of Ukrainian citizens are categorically against the sale of land to foreigners. Only 15% said they would support the land reform. It turns out that the Ukrainian authorities are again ready to “rely” on the opinion of a minority in their attempts to please their Western partners.

Author: Igor Ahmetov (Editor in chief of the portal “Wave of Caspy”)

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are only of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinion or position of World Geostrategic Insights).

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