The issue of appointing the Minister of Agrarian Policy is not being discussed in the Verkhovna Rada. There are no announced candidates, and they are unlikely to appear before the next session week. This was reported to UNN by interlocutors in the parliament.
Some names of potential candidates are being voiced, but all these talks are only rumors, there are no serious discussions, MPs say.
Meanwhile, more than a month has passed since Mykola Solsky resigned as Minister of Agrarian Policy. The formal reason was an accusation by the NABU that he had allegedly seized land plots in Sumy Oblast seven years ago, long before he held public office.
After his dismissal from the post of minister, it became known that neither Solsky nor his family or affiliates had any land in Sumy region. This is confirmed by at least declarations of the former minister. Moreover, even the NABU detectives themselves cannot explain what exactly Solskyi took possession of. According to their version, Solsky (as a lawyer) helped ATO participants to register land shares, the right to which was given to them by the state. And the crime is that these lands allegedly belonged to the National Agrarian Academy.
However, even the Academy itself could not find the documents and prove that the land was really theirs. According to NAAS employees, they considered these lands to be theirs because these lands used to be the collective and state farms of Lenin and Stalin, who are supposedly their heirs. But again, the NAAS has no official documents.
But the NABU still "attributes" these lands to the NAAS, and this is the main intrigue of this case - whether the detectives will be able to prove that the land belonged to the Academy. And whether NABU detectives will go to the extent of taking away land from the ATO soldiers who received it from the state.
In general, the case is "fragile" and not obvious. There are many versions floating around as to why someone would want the head of the strategic ministry to resign right now.
According to one version, the reason for Solsky's resignation was not land at all, but political games and foreign interest in Ukraine's agricultural sector. And NABU, according to this logic, became a key instrument when it "played along" with the seven-year-old case.
Indirectly, this version may be supported by the fact that immediately after the public accusations of NABU, the Poles broke off negotiations with Ukraine and began to block the borders again . Although a month before, in the negotiations, where Solsky was the main representative of Ukraine, both sides stated a significant step forward towards resolving the international crisis.
According to another version, Solsky's resignation was necessary to eliminate the Ministry of Agrarian Policy as part of the reorganization of the entire Cabinet of Ministers. The entire agricultural sector opposed this initiative. And perhaps Solsky himself was against it.
Meanwhile, the 2024 harvest has begun in Ukraine. At this time, Ukrainian farmers need support from the relevant ministry more than ever. But how effective this assistance can be without a minister remains an open question.