A house under construction by two expatriates in the village of Vytachiv near Kyiv was set on fire in the early hours of Aug. 27, and the owners believe they may have been targeted for their civic position.
One of the owners, Swiss film director Marc Wilkins, says he suspects that someone burned the building down as a revenge for their activism against illegal land grabs in Kyiv.
“There are strong indicators that it is someone who does not like my or my partner’s activism in Kyiv,” said Wilkins, who lives most of the year in Kyiv.
The Kyiv Oblast police have confirmed that the cause of the fire was arson based on the firefighters’ conclusions. The police are now investigating who was behind it.
“A criminal investigation has been opened into intentional destruction or damage of property by arson,” police spokesperson Vitaliya Hroholska told the Kyiv Post. “The sanction is from three to 10 years of imprisonment.”
Eco-friendly residence
The house in question is a project of Wilkins and his business partner Philippe d’Have, a Belgian businessman who lives in Kyiv and works in the distribution of beauty products. Called the “Riverbird’s Nest,” it is supposed to be an ecologically friendly cottage. Half the money to build the house came from crowdfunding.
Once the cottage is built, it will be available for rent to people who want to enjoy its idyllic views of the Dnipro River some 65 kilometers south of Kyiv.
Wilkins has been known to support initiatives trying to reclaim public space from alleged illegal privatizations on Kyiv’s Reitarska Street, where he lives. But he declined to state what activism he believes led to the “Riverbird’s Nest” being targeted and who he thinks might be behind it, saying he did not want to influence the police investigation.
D’Have suggested that there may be a specific person behind the arson with whom he had a “small dispute,” but didn’t give names.
“I could not have imagined that a mad guy could have destroyed our dreams and (risked) human lives for a simple small dispute,” d’Have said in a Facebook post. “I will dedicate my time and energy to put the man who has paid for this criminal fire in jail.”
“The Riverbird’s Nest” cottage about 12 hours before it was destroyed by arson on Aug. 27, 2020 in the village of Vytachiv near Kyiv. The cottage was about 70-percent complete, and was being built by two expats living in Kyiv.
While Wilkins and d’Have co-own the land for construction, the agricultural land around it is owned by d’Have’s wife Anna, who is a Ukrainian citizen, Wilkins says. The reason is that there is still a ban on the sale of farmland to foreign citizens in Ukraine.
The issue of foreign citizens buying and owning farmland in Ukraine has long been controversial in Ukrainian society. Some politicians have claimed that, if this is allowed, foreigners will buy out most Ukrainian land. And while the Ukrainian parliament has voted to lift the ban on the sale of agricultural land starting on July 1, 2021, foreigners will still not be allowed to buy it unless Ukrainians support this in a referendum.
In this context, the arson of Wilkins and d’Have’s building could be connected to somebody taking offense at two foreign citizens building property on a scenic piece of farmland in the village. Wilkins says that, while he acknowledges this possibility, they never felt any hostility against them as foreigners. They experienced only welcoming and friendly reactions from the locals, he says.
“There was a village council meeting where we introduced ourselves, spoke about our plans. (We had) lots of interactions,” Wilkins says. “Nobody ever asked for documents or made us feel ‘foreign and not welcome.'”
Wilkins says they want the village community to benefit from the cottage. For example, the cottage will inform its lodgers where to get the best groceries from locals or where to find the best fishing guide in the village.
A digital rendering of the “Riverbird’s Nest” cottage. The project was destroyed by arson before it was completed. But the owners plan to rebuild it and make it available for rent.
Many people supported the project financially during the crowdfunding campaign. While Wilkins and d’Have financed half of the cottage’s €56,000 ($67,500) cost, the other half was crowdfunded on the Indiegogo platform. The backers were promised some “perks,” like discounts on stays at the cottage. Wilkins says that none of them asked for their money back after the fire.
The cottage was around 70% complete before the arson, Wilkins says, and they lost about $30,000 in the fire. He says they plan to start building again in March and will plant new trees and flowers after some were destroyed in the fire.
To cover the money lost in the fire, they will also start another crowdfunding campaign called the “Phoenix Fund.”
“It’s just overwhelming how generous the people are around me. People are writing that they have €1,000 reserved for rebuilding the Riverbird’s Nest,” Wilkins says. “Together we will rebuild it, and it will become more beautiful than we have ever dreamed of.”
