Instead of preserving historical charm, elite housing takes precedence. Controversial construction has emerged in Zhytomyr region.

The first instance court has ordered a private company, co-founded by Ivan Litvin – the son of the former Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada – and well-known businessman Igor Mazepa, to return a land plot on the bank of the Sluch River in the Zhytomyr region to the community. Almost ten years ago, this land was purchased from a local resident, along with an old mill, allegedly with plans to maintain it. Subsequently, changes in land use and other "tricks" transformed the hayfields into a construction site. When law enforcement agencies took note of the legal violations, it became evident that restoring justice might not be straightforward.

"Telegraf" delved into the land saga and uncovered intriguing details.

Initially intended for personal farming, plans changed

The court's decision regarding the land plot of over 1 hectare on the banks of the Sluch River within the village of Alexandrovka in the Zvyagil district (previously known as Novograd-Volynsky until 2020 – Ed.) was announced on December 19 by the press service of the Zhytomyr regional prosecutor's office. This location is just a two-hour drive from Kyiv and one hour from Zhytomyr. The brief announcement noted that at one time it was "illegally granted into private ownership to a local resident for personal farming and the maintenance of the mill building." Subsequently, this "piece" of land changed hands several times and eventually came to be owned by the "Rivne Society," which facilitated the change in land use "for the purpose of reconstructing the mill and other buildings into tourist infrastructure, including a hotel, restaurant, wine cellar, etc."

"Prosecutors established violations of land legislation regarding the management of communal property water fund land and proved in court the illegality of acquiring private ownership," the press service noted, adding that the corresponding court ruling obliges the limited liability company to return the land to the Zvyagil City Council.

It turned out that the defendant in the case was LLC "Nadsluchanskaya Zhemchuzhina" (Ukrainian: "Надслучанська Перлина"), founded, according to data from the OpenDataBot service, on May 20, 2014. Its ultimate beneficiaries are currently a trio – Ivan Litvin, Yuriy Blagodyr, and Igor Mazepa. Ivan Litvin is the son of the well-known politician Volodymyr Litvin from the Zvyagil region, he owns several private companies and the charitable foundation "Future of Polissia," and ran for parliament ten years ago alongside his father but did not secure a deputy mandate. The second, Yuriy Blagodyr, is a former MP, a party mate and fellow countryman of Litvin senior, a deputy in the Rivne Regional Council for several terms, where he also has several LLCs listed. The third, Igor Mazepa, is an investment banker and owner of Concorde Capital, who was detained at the Ukrainian-Polish border earlier this year by the DBR on suspicion of "ordering the acquisition of lands of the Kyiv HPP." This concerns a 2.4-hectare plot purchased on the secondary market, where the businessman built an elite cottage village called Goodlifepark.

In the case concerning Zhytomyr region, water fund lands are involved, as the disputed plot of 1.1716 hectares is located on the bank of the Sluch River and consists of three "pieces" that were "hayfields." The mill, estimated to have been built in the late 18th to early 19th century, has been preserved here. According to the decision of the Economic Court of the Zhytomyr Region, the land was transferred to one of the local residents in late 2010 for personal farming by order of the head of the local district state administration. The commission's conclusion that studied the possibility of allocating the land at that time noted that it "borders on a water body (the Sluch River), floods during high water, which allows for its classification as part of the coastal protective strip, imposing the following restrictions on its use: no new construction; use of the plot for the maintenance of the mill building."

In June 2013, just 2.5 years later, the local resident sold this land to another person, who also acquired the existing real estate on it (diesel installation house, old mill, etc.) that same day. By March 2014, the district state administration approved the new owner's change of the land's purpose: for the construction and maintenance of tourist infrastructure and public catering facilities.

The signature on this order was affixed just a few days before the official's dismissal (the corresponding presidential decree was signed on March 18, while the order approving the land management project is dated March 4 – Ed.), by Serhiy Lavreniuk, who was a party mate of Litvin senior and was elected from the "People's Party" to the local council.

On May 26 of the same year, the new landowner transferred the 1.1716-hectare plot by the water body into the authorized capital of LLC "Nadsluchanskaya Zhemchuzhina," which registered ownership rights on June 16. Currently, aside from this "piece" of land, the limited liability company owns 11 other plots in the vicinity. Some of these have the designated purpose "for personal farming," several others "for the construction and maintenance of residential houses, outbuildings, and structures," and others "for the construction and maintenance of tourist infrastructure and public catering facilities." In total, this amounts to just over 2.5 hectares.

A regular hotel turns into an apartment hotel

The new owner soon made a clear statement of his rights to the communal land by fencing off the area around the mill. Access was thus closed not only to this historic site but also to the water. A participant in one of the local groups wrote about it in January 2016: "On Sunday, I decided to visit one of my favorite places on the Sluch River – the remains of the water mill in the village of Alexandrovka. But I was unpleasantly surprised – a metal fence right up to the water, behind it solid construction. The fenced area is not small. The project passport reads 'Reconstruction… for a hotel complex…'. It's no longer easy to walk along the river."

Since the documents included a restriction on new construction, it was specifically about "reconstruction with the completion of the existing mill buildings." This format is mentioned on the page of the design institute "Comfortbud", where it is also indicated that as a result, the owner should obtain a hotel with a conference hall and swimming pool, a restaurant with VIP apartments, and a winery. Judging by the description of the work already carried out, only one of the existing buildings on the land was used for the latter, as only the performance of load-bearing structures and roofing with tiles is mentioned. Meanwhile, the two other buildings planned for the hotel and restaurant were constructed from the ground up. The work was expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2016, with Gladkevich A.A. as the general contractor.

The cadastral map indicates that the disputed land plot contains a hotel complex. However, attempts to find any contact information for the establishment yield links to websites offering apartments for sale. The project, as noted on the LUN website, is now named ZORI by Shelest (the ZORI trademark is registered to LLC "Nadsluchanskaya Zhemchuzhina"), and its executor is the aforementioned Concorde Capital. This involves elite real estate – a three-story building with 58 apartments. All of them have already been sold, in fact, within just two months: sales started on August 27, and by October 18, they were already closed. According to DimRia's website, one could purchase one-bedroom apartments ranging from 20 to 39 square meters starting at $82,000, and two-bedroom apartments (41-82 square meters) starting at $150,000. However, owners will only be able to celebrate their housewarming next year, as the completion date is set for the fourth quarter of 2025. An important point: in the "documents" section, it is stated that the object occupies three land plots.

Moreover, the merging of three plots with the same cadastral numbers, totaling 2.3453 hectares (in addition to the disputed plot of 1.1716 hectares, two smaller plots of 0.3215 and 0.8522 hectares are included) is mentioned in the report on the planned activities of LLC "Nadsluchanskaya Z