Tymoshenko Has Warned about the “Fraud of the Century” in Ukraine

The Ukrainian authorities are preparing to “commit the fraud of the century” and pass a law on the sale of land, hiding behind the coronavirus pandemic. Such an opinion was expressed by the leader of the Batkivshchyna (“Fatherland”) opposition party Yulia Tymoshenko on Monday, March 30. According to her, the law is planned to be adopted at an extraordinary meeting of the Verkhovna Rada. “A law that in a few years will allow foreigners to buy our black soil. And our land will bear fruit and profit not to Ukrainians, but to international holdings,” the politician wrote on Facebook. Tymoshenko emphasized that the country’s authorities take advantage of inability of citizens to protest because of quarantine. According to her, the authorities are convincing Ukrainians that only by adopting this law they will be able to get another loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and avoid default. “This is a fraud and cynical manipulation ... We will be given a loan of several billion, and a resource will be taken that has no price,” Tymoshenko wrote. The parliament adopted the draft law on land in the first reading at the beginning of November 2019. On December 18, the agrarian committee of the parliament prepared amendments to the second reading of the bill. If the law is passed, the right to purchase land will also be given to companies whose ultimate beneficiaries are foreign citizens, provided that they have been working in Ukraine for more than three years and pay taxes. The bill is criticized by experts, and raises discontent of citizens who hold rallies and believe that the law on land circulation will lead to the total purchase of farmland by foreigners, the destruction of Ukrainian farms, rural decline and will contribute to economic degradation and social tension. The adoption of the land law is one of the conditions for Kiev to receive the next tranche from the IMF.