The former head of the StateGeoCadastre told why NAAS “lost” huge tracts of land and how ATO soldiers got them

For a long time, the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences thought it owned vast tracts of Ukrainian land, considering itself the successor to Soviet collective and state farms. However, an all-Ukrainian comprehensive inspection showed that this was not the case - in most cases, the state-owned enterprises of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences in the regions did not have any legal documents for this land. Former acting head of the StateGeoCadastre Oleksandr Kolotilin told UNN in an interview.

According to the former head of the StateGeoCadastre, in 2017, Ukraine launched a nationwide inspection of state-owned enterprises to ensure that they have documents for land plots. Its results showed that many state-owned enterprises of the National Academy of Sciences had not formalized their land rights for decades, but kept records according to the Soviet principle - all land belongs to a collective or state farm.

"The National Academy of Agrarian Sciences was essentially accounting for squatters' land without any documents. That's why when this issue came up, the NAAS statistics did not match the reality. When Ukraine became independent, these special forms (2zem, 6zem) were filled out for the first time. We came to the director of the collective farm. "Ivan Ivanovych, how much land do you have according to these documents?", ‘Three hundred hectares’, ‘Oh, good, this collective farm has three hundred hectares’. That's how they counted," Kolotilin said.

He said that an inspection by the State Geocadastre showed that most NAAS enterprises had never received a single land document since Ukraine's independence.

Later, the land for which there were no documents was divided into plots, including those of ATO soldiers. Kolotilin said that the ATO soldiers were very proactive and controlled the entire process of land allocation, sometimes even leading to scandals. Very often, ATO soldiers' associations chose the land themselves and asked for it to be allocated to the military.

"There were cases everywhere when ATO members came and said: these are land plots that have no documents and we demand that you give them to us, we have not yet received them from these people. They filed applications, they were reviewed, and if they really did not own and use the land, they were granted it, because there were no legal grounds for refusal. The ATO soldiers were not so much interested in the plots themselves, but in the income they could receive from the land, so they chose those that were in demand among agricultural companies. They are the largest tenants of such land plots," he emphasized.

Since most of the state-owned enterprises of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences did not have documents for the land plots they were using without permission, this land was in reserve. Therefore, as the former head of the State Geocadastre noted, the body could not refuse to grant such land to the military.

"What were those who worked in the StateGeoCadastre supposed to do? They had to consider their applications. And if it is possible and legal, if the desired land plot is not leased or used, to grant permission to develop the project. Then they had to approve it, enter these plots in the state land cadastre, and approve the project. At this stage, the role of the StateGeoCadastre body ended with the approval of the project. Next, they (ATO participants - ed.) registered the rights in the register of rights. Every day in every region, applications from ATO participants were considered," Kolotilin added.

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Although the NAAS has lost much of its land due to ineffective management, there is a possible positive aspect to this if these lands are used more efficiently and serve to really support veterans and other citizens who really need help.

However, not everyone in Ukraine supports the efficient and transparent use of Ukrainian land. This is evidenced, among other things, by the NABU case against the former Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solskyi. According to the investigation, it was he who, as a lawyer, helped ATO soldiers eight years ago to obtain land plotsthat were allegedly used by the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences. Despite the fact that the reasonable investigation deadlines for this case have already expired, and NABU is now extending them through the court -  detectives plan to interrogate thousands of soldiers who received these lands.