Businessmen inform about regular seizure attempts on Lukyanivsky market

Kyiv, March 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Entrepreneurs from the Kyiv-based Lukyanivsky market have asked for protection against illegal seizures.

"Raiders from Kvitkova Haliavyna Ltd. aren't letting us work calmly – they're threatening us by saying: "get out of here, take your stuff away, we want to come and change the management." They don't tell us what they want to do, they just want to seize it," Chairman of the initiative group for the protection of Lukyanivsky Market Denys Khomenko said at a press conference hosted by Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

According to Deputy Director General of Lukyanivsky Market Ltd. Roman Ropotan, the new owner of the market bought it at an auction in September 2010, but the businessmen discovered this only after a year and a half.

"We wrote a letter to Kyiv City State Administration to [Head of Kyiv City State Administration Oleksandr] Popov asking him to intervene in the situation… They sent the owner of Kvitkova Haliavyna, deputy of Kyiv City Council from the People's Party faction Oleksandr Vasyliovych Lischenko," Khomenko said.

In turn, Chairman of the Nastup All-Ukrainian Committee Ruslan Sekera said that activists of his organization have been guarding the market for the fourth day in a row. They have collected over 4,000 signatures of citizens to protect the entrepreneurs over two days. At the same time, the new owners of the market keep trying to seize the market.

"We're facing a state raider attack against business," Sekera said.

Lukyanivsky market is one of the oldest markets in Kyiv. It is situated in one of the capital's central districts. According to Ropotan, the conflict between the management of the market and the Kvitkova Haliavyna company has lasted for two weeks. Kvitkova Haliavyna bought the market for over UAH 7 million in 2010, while Kyiv Institute of Land Relations estimated the cost of the market at UAH 96.356,842. More than 600 entrepreneurs work at the market.