Warsaw did not stop negotiations with Kyiv on farmers’ protests - Ambassador Zvarych
Poland has not stopped negotiations with Kyiv on agrarian issues, negotiations continue at all levels.
Ambassador of Ukraine to Poland Vasyl Zvarych said this in a commentary to Ukrinform, commenting on the statement of Polish Deputy Minister of Agriculture Michal Kolodziejczak in the Polish media about the alleged suspension of negotiations with Ukraine over the case of former Minister of Agriculture Mykola Solskyi, Censor.NET reports.
"This is not about stopping the negotiations, because the talks continue at all levels, including at the embassy level. For objective reasons known to us, there was simply a need to postpone the meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture of Ukraine and Poland to a later date, when the Ukrainian side will identify an official from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy to participate in such a meeting. However, I want to assure you that interest in continuing meetings at the level of relevant ministries involving farmers' associations of the two countries remains high, and such a dialogue is effective," Zvarych emphasized.
Earlier, Kolodziejczak said that Warsaw had interrupted talks with Kyiv on agricultural issues over the resignation of former Minister Solskyi and his criminal case.
Accusations of former Minister Solskyi
On April 23 NABU informed the current Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solskyi of suspicion of organizing a scheme to acquire state lands with an area of about 2.5 thousand hectares worth UAH 291 million under the pretext of allocating plots to ATO veterans.
According to the investigation, in 2017-2021, Solskyi, as the owner of several agricultural companies, in collusion with the head of the State Geocadastre of Ukraine and the curators of the State Geocadastre authorities, decided to take over land that was used by two state-owned enterprises in the Sumy region.
The perpetrators first destroyed the documents based on which the state-owned enterprises had the right to permanent use of the land. This became the basis for the regional State Geocadastre to draw up an act on the arbitrary seize of these plots by state enterprises.
Subsequently, these lands were transferred to private ownership with the help of controlled officials of the regional State Geocadastre. The land was transferred to pre-determined citizens under the guise of exercising their right to free land, and the condition for receiving the land was to sign a lease agreement with the agricultural holding before receiving it.
Solskyi does not admit guilt and stated that the events relate to the period of 2017-2018, when he was a lawyer.
On April 25, the minister filed a letter of resignation.
Subsequently, Solskyi was taken into custody with an alternative bail of UAH 75.7 million. Later, he was released on bail.
On May 9, the Verkhovna Rada resigned him from the post of Minister of Agrarian Policy.
