Either Ukraine earns from subsoil together with partners, or subsoils are seized by Russians – Ukrainian Agri Council head
International partners, in addition to Ukrainian subsoil, have always been interested in Ukrainian agricultural lands, given the further growth of the world's population, this may be a reasonable offer, primarily for Europe, said Andriy Dykun, chairman of the Ukrainian Agri Council, in a video interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He recalled that many foreign companies operate in Ukraine, the shares of which are traded on European exchanges.
"Do many owners of these shares come to defend Ukraine? If we had sold this land then (during the launch of the land market before the full-scale invasion) I am sure that they would have bought it by now," Dykun said.
He expressed confidence that Russians would also buy Ukrainian land at the time of the launch of the land market. At the same time, the Verkhovna Rada could not adopt a law until 2022 that would allow anyone but Russians to buy land.
"Then it would be a slightly different story: they would call it not 'Russian world', but 'Russian lands'," he noted.
Dykun is convinced that Ukraine needs strong partners. At the same time, the issue of transferring subsoil to international partners for development is a difficult choice, however, according to the expert, there is no alternative.
"But otherwise, these lands, our subsoil, will be taken away by the Russians for free … Or we will, together with our partners, earn money from the subsoil that we have. That's all. It will not be otherwise," he said.
He added that when determining the priority of transferring Ukrainian subsoil or farmland for use, Europe should first use them.
In addition, he was skeptical about the transfer of state agricultural lands at the ProZorro.Sale auctions for sublease within the framework of the Land Bank project. He expressed confidence that it would be appropriate to transfer them for cultivation free of charge to farmers who relocated to territories controlled by Ukraine from temporarily occupied lands.
"On the one hand, we have state lands that have now gone to ProZorro and that show us as a great victory that finally these lands have started to earn some money for the state. I believe that these lands should have simply been distributed to those people who lost everything because people lived in the territory, paid taxes, we did not protect them, the state is guilty before them," Dykun emphasized.
He added that the council is also waiting for the Verkhovna Rada to adopt the entire draft law on freezing loans for enterprises under occupation.