Only Ukrainian citizens, companies to be able to buy Ukrainian land – Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the model of the land market in the country proposed by Ukrainian authorities implies that only Ukrainian individuals and legal entities will be able to buy land.
"I want to dispel several myths. First, the land belongs to the Ukrainians. In the model that we offer with the government, only Ukrainian citizens or Ukrainian companies will be able to buy or sell land," he said, speaking at a meeting with Ukrainian farmers in Kyiv on Thursday.
"Scary stories about Arabs, Chinese, or aliens who will take our land in wagons are nonsense," Zelensky said.
The president said that Ukrainian citizens should finally have a full, and not a "hybrid" right to own, use and sell their land.
Zelensky recalled that since 2001, after the moratorium on the sale of land was introduced, a transparent mechanism for buying/selling land in Ukraine has not been developed.
"Instead, shadow schemes and frauds appeared. This is a million hectares of land and tens of billions of hryvnias, which do not benefit simple farmers or peasants, but various individuals," he said.
Zelensky also said that in the world, North Korea, Tajikistan, Venezuela, Cuba and Congo do not have the land market.
Responding to a remark from the audience that land is forbidden to be sold in Israel and Canada, the president said: "This is not a geography lesson. You would tell us what other countries [do not have the land market] and in which country we want to live."