After hours-long debate in parliament in which tempers flared, the majority of Ukrainian lawmakers passed a bill lifting the ban on buying and selling farmland. It received 240 votes, requiring 226 to pass.
If the bill is adopted, it will introduce a land market by removing the existing ban on sales of agricultural land. It would allow Ukrainian nationals and Ukrainian-registered companies to trade land, while foreign entities may face restrictions.
The open land market has been largely supported by international institutions as a measure to attract investment into Ukraine’s agricultural sector. It has been mentioned multiple times as a key requirement for receiving another International Monetary Fund aid package.
“Land reform is needed for Ukrainian farmers to buy and sell agricultural land, access credit, invest and diversify, as well as land owners to get proper return for their most valuable asset,” reads a statement from the World Bank from Nov. 9.
“It benefits all farmers — small, medium and large — and landowners, raises economic growth as well as the living standards of all Ukrainian people. The planned reform also includes measures to limit land concentration, stop raider attacks and provide financial assistance for small farmers.”
The European Union has also endorsed the reform as “a move that could unleash a huge potential for Ukraine’s economy.”
“Small farmers should stand at the center of this reform,” reads a statement from the European Union in Ukraine from Nov. 13.
“The opening of the land market should be the first step of a wider and more comprehensive land reform encompassing other elements of land governance, land use policy, planning and monitoring, land rights awareness creation, land consolidation.”
In a video address to the nation released on Nov. 12, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the decision on whether foreigners and companies with foreign ownership should be allowed to buy land will rest with voters and will be put to a people’s referendum.
Delivering a speech in front of parliament on Nov. 13, minister of economy and agriculture Timofiy Milovanov said he believed in a property-owning democracy.
“We have to give Ukrainian people an opportunity to manage their land. An owner has to feel him/ her an owner, not a serf, and be able to sell one plot and buy another one that fits his/ her needs better,” Milovanov said from the tribune to some shouts of “shame” from opposing lawmakers.
Members of the 24-seat Batkivshchyna and 44-seat Opposition Platform factions blocked the tribune and gave a series of emotionally-charged speeches. The session proceeded amid mass protests in front of the parliament building.
A common sentiment shared among the opposition was that Ukraine will lose its land and independence to oligarchs and foreigners.
“We will become a third world country…. Don’t let this tragedy happen. You will vote in favour of corporations and oligarchs. You will sell our land in the time of war,” Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of Batkivshchyna party, appealed to her younger colleagues from the ruling party Servant of the People.
Mykhailo Papiyev from Opposition Platform was less diplomatic in his expressions and called proponents of the bill “grant eaters and George Soros proxies”.
“Today is the day of shame for Ukraine. Servants of the people will become servants of the devil,” he said.
Iryna Herashchenko from the 26-member European Solidarity faction voiced a more measured criticism. She said preconditions were important before opening the land market, such as creating a transparent land cadaster and the setting of minimum market prices.
The bill got 227 votes from Servant of the People and 13 votes from independent lawmakers.
Opposition Platform checked as absent. European Solidarity and Barkivshchyna voted against. Voice abstained from the vote.
