Kyiv Commercial Court of Appeal has returned to state ownership the early 19th-century Hostynniy Dvir building in central Kyiv, taking it from a private company linked to a loyalist of the ousted former Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych.
Activists hailed the move, saying it would help to save the now crumbling, roofless building in the capital’s Podil district, built in 1809, from total ruin.
“Starting from today Hostynniy Dvir is no longer the property of Yanukovych’s ‘chief housekeeper.’ It is now under the full ownership of the state,” lawmaker and former Kyiv city activist Igor Lutsenko wrote on his Facebook page on Feb. 28.
By “chief housekeeper,” Lutsenko was referring to Andriy Kravets, who headed the State Procurement Agency in Yanukovych’s time.
In 1994, the more than 9,000-square-meter Hostynniy Dvir, which at that time mainly hosted small shops and workshops of local craftsmen, was leased to a private firm called Ukrrestavratsiya, which took on the obligation of maintaining the historic building.
Ukrrestavratsiya’s manager, Dmytro Yarych, was linked to Kravets — according to the Ukrainska Pravda news website, Yarych worked as a lawyer for Kravet’s wife.
In 2011 the Cabinet of Ministers withdrew Hostynniy Dvir from the state registry of objects of the historic legacy, which allowed Ukrrestavratsiya to start in 2012 a massive building project, with plans to convert the property into a modern trade center.
Kyiv activists feared the reconstruction would destroy the historic facade of the building, and tried to prevent the building work. They started organizing protests and cultural events in Hostynniy Dvir, which led to several fights with thugs hired by the construction company.
In 2013, a fire broke out on the building’s second floor – activists suspected Ukrrestavratsiya caused the fire in order to ensure the reconstruction work could continue.
In 2014, after Yanukovych fled the country, Kyiv City Council stopped the lease contract with Ukrrestavratsiya and the government returned the building under the state protection as a historic object.
But the fight for the building continued.
In 2016, the Kyiv Commercial Court refused to return the building to state ownership. The Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office challenged the ruling in the court of appeals and won the case.
In November 2017, Kyiv City Council agreed to take Hostynniy Dvir under city management, but it’s still unclear how the city authorities plan to use the building.
One of the options, according to Deputy Kyiv Mayor Hanna Starostenko, would be to create a museum of Kyiv history there.
