The plenary session concluded half an hour after it began
The continuation of the Kyiv City Council session, which had been postponed since January 30, was once again delayed: on Thursday, February 20, the deputies managed to work for only 30 minutes. Representatives of "European Solidarity" blocked the podium, and the plenary session was postponed indefinitely.
What the faction of Poroshenko aimed to achieve and which decision projects ended up in the long drawer once again – read in the new article from Kashtan NEWS.
What preceded this
Recall that after a seven-week break for the winter holidays (the last meeting of 2024 took place on December 12), the deputies gathered again in the session hall on January 30, but did not manage to get through the agenda, so they agreed to postpone the continuation of work to February 4.
However, at the appointed time, things did not go well again, and for unknown reasons, the meeting was postponed for two and a half weeks. And just in time: during this interval, NABU and SAP had managed to scrutinize the Kyiv City Council and the KCSA, resulting in the head of the land commission, "UDAR" member Mykhailo Terentyev, and a member of the same commission from "Batkivshchyna," Olena Marchenko, being taken into custody on suspicion of involvement in corrupt dealings with Kyiv land.
1 Without Terentyev's life-giving influence, the other commission members became disheartened and have not gathered a single time since their leader's arrest. Hence, it was clear in advance that the plenary session on February 20 would not be lengthy: usually, the "land" block consists of several dozen decision projects, but since the relevant commission did not meet and discussed anything, there was nothing to bring to the session.
To Caesar what is Caesar's
As a result, only 33 decision projects were added to the preliminary agenda for this Thursday, of which only four were to be reviewed. Gathering in the session hall with just a forty-minute delay (a kind of speed record: this ceremony often lasts for hours), the deputies quickly and cheerfully adopted:
- the procedure for providing additional benefits to Kyiv residents – Defenders of Ukraine in 2025;
- the procedure for providing financial assistance in 2025 for the adaptation of vehicles for Kyiv residents – Defenders of Ukraine who became disabled due to the war;
- a technical issue regarding the inclusion of deputies' amendments in the already adopted decision from December on changes to the targeted program "Care."
2 At this point, the practical part of the meeting concluded, and the political part began. The Secretary of the Kyiv City Council, Volodymyr Bondarenko, put to a vote the inclusion of a project in the agenda addressing the Kyiv City Council's appeal to the President, the Verkhovna Rada, and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine "regarding the unacceptability of persecution of the opposition, military personnel, and representatives of local self-government." The initiator of this project was the "European Solidarity" faction, with Leonid Yemets as its spokesperson.
According to Yemets, Ukraine "is currently in the most difficult situation since gaining independence."
"Instead of uniting all forces and means to fight the Russian aggressor, the authorities are engaged in destroying democratic processes within the country. Thus, the Ukrainian opposition, officers of the Armed Forces, and representatives of local self-government have come under attack from the authorities," he announced.
3 However, among the individuals who "came under attack," Yemets specifically named only Petro Poroshenko, but at least regarding the "representatives of local self-government," one could guess the context: the NABU and SAP operation "Clean City" has disrupted the united ranks of the "EU" partners from "UDAR," detaining not only Terentyev but also Klitschko's deputy Petro Olenych. Furthermore, it is hard not to recall Klitschko's recent complaints about the head of the Kyiv Military Administration, Tymur Tkachenko, who, in the mayor's opinion, is attempting to usurp his powers.
In addition to an immediate cessation of pressure on the named and unnamed individuals, "European Solidarity" in their project of appeal proposed to call on the government and the Verkhovna Rada:
- to stop rolling back the decentralization reform;
- to increase funding for the army by transferring income tax funds directly to the brigades;
- to cancel the permission to purchase Russian nuclear reactors in Bulgaria for the Khmelnytsky Nuclear Power Plant.
Interestingly, with the second point, the capital's "EU" either intentionally or unintentionally threw a wrench into the works of their partners from "UDAR": as is known, Vitaliy Klitschko has been struggling for years to return the income tax – but not to brigades, but to communities, specifically the Kyiv community (i.e., KCSA). Nevertheless, in any case, the faction's initiative was not destined to be realized even in the format of an appeal: only 55 deputies voted for the inclusion of the project in the agenda – 26 members of "EU," 24 from "UDAR," 4 members of "Holos," and one independent member.
4 After this, the "EU" faction surrounded the podium, to which Secretary Volodymyr Bondarenko responded with remarkable calmness.
"As far as I understand, the podium is blocked," he said phlegmatically and announced a break for a conciliatory council.
However, the conciliatory council could not come to an agreement, and just a few minutes later, it was announced that the plenary session would be postponed indefinitely.
Reactions and comments
Interestingly, the city mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko, who usually pays great attention to political processes in the Kyiv City Council, did not react at all to the disruption of the plenary session. However, this was predictable: in recent days, the "director of the city" has been more interested in foreign policy than Kyiv's, so instead of comments on the situation, Klitschko continued posting his photos from Brussels.
However, the members of "European Solidarity" on social media largely did not comment on their protest either: the passionate Yemets remained silent on Facebook, and so did Marina Poroshenko. Volodymyr Prokopyv, who during the blockade fervently tried to say something into the disconnected microphone, limited himself to almost conciliatory statements about the importance of the proposed appeal and the unacceptability of "opening an internal front within the country."
"I am confident that we will be able to convince our colleagues that such an appeal should be adopted at the nearest plenary session," – wrote he, not predicting, however, when this nearest session might take place.
In contrast, the head of the "Servant of the People" faction, Andriy Vitrenko, sharply reacted to the blockade of the podium.
5 "The 'European Solidarity' faction today, in my opinion, fully executed the Kremlin's script. They not only ignored important decisions for the city but also played into the hands of those who seek to destabilize the state. The session was supposed to consider critically important issues: increasing aid to the military, renaming facilities that still bear Soviet names, including schools and libraries. But all these issues were pushed aside for the sake of the economic interests of specific individuals associated with 'European Solidarity,'" – stated Andriy Vitrenko.
Postponed for better times
Due to the blockade of the Kyiv City Council's work, nearly three dozen issues were indeed left unaddressed (not counting those that had "hung" in the commissions even earlier). Here is a list of some decision projects that were included in the preliminary agenda for February 20:
- granting park status to the land plot near Lake Vyrlytsia (previously, this plot was allocated for the construction of an entertainment center by "Mriya Invest," which is linked to Vitaliy Klitschko, but the court annulled this decision);
- ensuring proper maintenance of internal courtyard passages that do not have a balance keeper in the Holosiivskyi district;
- measures for the preservation of buildings and structures whose year of construction exceeds 100 years (a much-troubled decision project created after the scandalous destruction of the Zelensky estate, which the deputies rejected on January 30);
- regulating the comprehensive development of Kyiv's