The barbaric destruction of a historical building in the center of Kyiv, known as the Zelensky estate, caused a significant resonance in society, which quickly grew into outrage.
In Kyiv, on July 19, a historical building known as the Zelensky estate was demolished. This event received significant public outcry thanks to activists, as well as the city authorities, who claim that the dismantling of the building was unauthorized.
“Shocking situation! What is happening is daring and cynical arbitrariness! City authorities and the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection are outraged by the situation. We believe that law enforcement agencies should give their assessment and bring the perpetrators to justice,” said Marina Solovyova, director of the department for the protection of cultural heritage of the Kyiv City State Administration.
The estate, which has nothing to do with the family of the current President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, was built in 1890. Initially, it was a one-story wooden building covered with brick. Only at the end of the 20th century was a second floor built over it.
The first owner of the building was the merchant Vasily Malinin, and in 1911-1915 the family of tradesman and honorary citizen Evmen Zelensky lived in it, whose name gave the name to the estate (the second, less well-known name of the building is the Malinin estate).
The Zelensky estate was located on Alexander Konissky Street (formerly Turgenevskaya), 22. It was one of the oldest buildings on the street and the last wooden one on it.
Historical (non)monument
What is the reason for such a barbaric act, which was the demolition of the Zelensky estate?
In fact, the building's problems began a long time ago. The history goes back to 2017, when the Servit company built an 11-story residential complex Turgenev next to it (remember, the old name of the street on which the Zelensky estate was located was Turgenevskaya). Now the developer’s plans include the construction of the second stage of the Turgenev residential complex. And, obviously, the two-story building interfered with plans to implement such a project.
To be fair, we note that there are other old buildings on Konissky, some of which were also destroyed for the sake of new residential and office complexes, the rapid construction of which does not stop here.
The first attempts to dismantle the estate were made back in 2018. Then the destruction of the building was stopped. However, work on its disassembly resumed in 2021. They were stopped again, and the estate was added to the “List of Historic Houses in Need of Additional Protection.”
At the beginning of 2024, the building was seized, which, however, did not stop its dismantling.
It should be noted that, despite the fact that the Zelensky estate was included in the list of historical buildings, it did not have the official status of an architectural monument.
“For all this time, the Kyiv City State Administration has not bothered to prepare and submit the necessary accounting documentation to include the building in the List of Cultural Heritage Objects. The NGO “Spadschina Kiev” addressed the corresponding letter dated July 18, 2024 to the MKIP (Ministry of Culture and Information Policy). Unfortunately, either having learned about such an initiative, or by coincidence, the developer almost completely destroyed the historically significant building on the same day,” Rostislav Karandeev, acting Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, wrote on Facebook.
In turn, the capital’s mayor’s office notes that “Spadshchina Kiev” two days before the demolition of the estate submitted to the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection of the Kyiv City State Administration a package of revised accounting documentation to assign the building the status of a monument. “This step is part of an action plan previously signed with the department to implement the petition “Preserve the historical Zelensky Estate,” which was supported by the city mayor,” the metropolitan administration said in a statement.
In addition, the director of the department for the protection of cultural heritage of the Kyiv City State Administration, Marina Solovyova, emphasized that since the Zelensky estate was located in the central historical area of the city, all issues related to this building are within the competence of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy.
Who is guilty?
While the mayor’s office and the Ministry of Culture are finding out who is to blame for the demolition of a historical building in the center of Kyiv, the prosecutor’s office has opened criminal proceedings regarding the dismantling of the Zelensky estate.
“Under the procedural leadership of the Shevchenko District Prosecutor’s Office of the city of Kyiv, criminal proceedings have been initiated regarding the destruction of the building at 22 Konissky Street. The actions of the persons who destroyed the building are qualified as destruction of property that has been seized (Part 1 of Article 388 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The fact of carrying out construction work in violation of the imposed ban, which is qualified as unauthorized construction on an unauthorized plot of land (Part 3 of Article 197-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) is also being investigated,” the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine said in a statement.
It is noted that the pre-trial investigation into the case is being conducted by investigators from the Shevchenkovsky district police department of Kyiv.
The capital's law enforcement officers also announced suspicion of destruction of the Zelensky estate to its owner.
“The offender hired a construction company, whose employees instructed them to dismantle the building in question,” the Kyiv police said in a statement.
We are talking about a certain 32-year-old citizen, whose name is not mentioned.
According to the register of property rights (register of speech rights on Nerukhoma Maino), the owners of the Zelensky estate are Yegor Sibilev (38%) and Mikhail Grechko (62%). It is unclear which of them was informed of the suspicion. At the same time, we can assume that we are talking about Mikhail Grechko, since he is the majority owner of the building, and he is also a co-owner of Turgenev Build LLC, which is involved in the Turgenev residential complex project. Another argument in favor of the fact that we can talk about him is that he was born in 1992.
What to do?
Those guilty of committing a barbaric act must be punished - this is clear. Therefore, let's hope that the investigation will be impartial and, in the end, will end with a judicial verdict.
However, what will happen to the Zelensky estate itself - will it remain in ruins or will it be restored?
The Department of Information Support and Access to Public Information of the Kyiv City State Administration "Apostrophe" assured that the fate of the building has, in fact, been decided - it will be restored at the expense of the owners.
According to the agreement reached, the owners of the Zelensky estate will have to return it to the state in which it was before the demolition.
By the way, on July 23, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine recognized the Zelensky estate, of which today only the ground floor with a basement remains, an architectural monument; the building will be included in the appropriate register.
Thus, now, for sure, neither the Turgenev residential complex nor anything else will be built on the site of the ill-fated Zelensky estate. The only pity is that the situation with it was resolved too late, when, in fact, there is no estate at all, and what appears on its foundation will be just a remake. However, even this is better than nothing.
