It is unacceptable to introduce the market of land in wartime, when the escalation of conflict in the east is possible and there is total distrust of authorities. This was stated by the Chairman of the political council of the “Ukrainian Association of Patriots”, MP Taras Batenko in the program “Right to Rule” on the air of “1+1” TV channel on June 15.
“At this stage UKROP is strongly against termination of the moratorium on sale of land,” said the MP.
The politician has mentioned that now opening of the land market is not required by the Ukrainian villagers, but firstly by the representatives of the International Monetary Fund. The government has undertaken a commitment to carry out land reform in conditions of actual monopoly of agricultural holdings that dispose of shareholders’ land under lease agreements. Agricultural billionaires pay about 35-40 dollars per year to villagers – about the same sum of money as it is usually spent by an ordinary IMF official on coffee in one of the world’s metropolitan cities.
According to Taras Batenko, land reform should start with social dialogue, search for compromise and audit of existing lands in Ukraine. And changes should first take into account the interests of ordinary farmers, who will be able to earn on land and to get loans for its cultivation at 2.3% instead of the current 18-25%. However, at the request of the IMF the Cabinet of Ministers proposes the reform that provides only landlessness and impoverishes villagers. Besides in order to please creditors the current government plans to rise the retirement age, so that most elderly Ukrainians would not even live to see it, and to close rural medical facilities within the declared health care reform.
“There is a question to the authorities: how many people will be still alive after these reforms in Ukraine? I think much less. Perhaps in this way the government wants to solve the problem of the hole in the state budget,” summed up Taras Batenko.
