Citizens of Ukraine are afraid that the land will be bought by foreigners, and this is one of the main reasons why two-thirds of voters in the “land referendum” will vote against the sale of land, which now embodies power, Director of the Rating sociological group Oleksiy Antypovych said.
During the roundtable conference titled “Ukrainians’ Attitude to Land Market” hosted by Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on the results of the survey published the day before, which his company conducted at the end of April, the sociologist said that 77% of residents support the referendum against the sale of agricultural land and 75% intend to take part in it.
“We asked very clearly, how would you vote in a referendum on such a question: ‘Do you support the introduction of a market for the purchase or sale of agricultural land in Ukraine?’ We see that 36% would vote for the introduction of a land market, while 64% would vote against it. Two-thirds are against, a third are for,” Antypovych said.
According to him, Ukrainians are especially frightened by the intention to allow the purchase of Ukrainian land by foreign citizens and companies, some 79% of respondents are against this.
“The fear that the land will be bought by foreigners is one of the main factors causing great resistance or great disagreement by Ukrainians to the idea of selling land, and there is no difference between residents of the West or the East, or respondents from different age groups,” the sociologist said.
It is planned that the land market in Ukraine should start working as early as July 1, 2021.
The participants of the event said the amendments to the Land Code, recently adopted by the votes of a mono-majority, allowed the sale of Ukrainian land to foreigners, canceled the ban on the sale of especially valuable land and provided the preferential right to purchase land to persons who are going to be engaged in mining.
At the same time, the parliamentary faction of the Batkivschyna party of Yulia Tymoshenko, which was the only one in the Verkhovna Rada that did not give a single vote for any “land” law, is now organizing an all-Ukrainian referendum in defense of the land.
Tymoshenko’s team has already opened a special hotline and has appointed a meeting of the initiative group, which already has more than 12,000 people, for May 22.
