The Verkhovna Rada has begun considering the resignation of Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solskyy.
Before the vote, he made a report to the MPs. According to MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, 273 MPs voted in favour of the dismissal.
Solskyy wrote a letter of resignation after being suspected of land misappropriation. At the same time, the Servant of the People faction failed to adopt a decision on his dismissal. According to LB.ua sources, the faction is against the resignation. But Solskyy himself was in favour.
Mykola Solskyy
A native of the Lviv Region, he graduated from the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Faculty of Law, specialising in Law.
From July 1999 to August 1999, he worked as a translator for the Ukrainian-Canadian joint venture Emigration Bridge.
From March 2000 to January 2003, he worked as a legal adviser in various companies. From 2003 to 2014, he was the CEO of Solskyy, Protsyk and Partners Law Firm LLC.
Mr Solskyy has been a co-founder of Ukrainian Agrarian Holding since 2007. Subsequently, he became the founder of seven and beneficiary of ten agricultural enterprises.
From March 2014 to March 2019, he was Deputy Executive Director of the company. From March to August 2019, he was a lawyer at Protsyk and Partners.
On 21 July 2019, he was elected as a Member of Parliament of Ukraine.
On 29 August 2019, he was elected Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the IX convocation.
On 24 March 2022, he was appointed Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine.
Solskyy case
The Minister of Agrarian Policy is suspected of seizing state land worth UAH 291 million and attempting to seize land worth another UAH 190 million. He pleads not guilty. The charges relate to the period when Solskyy was not a minister.
The prosecution's version of the case states that Solskyy and other participants in the scheme destroyed documents on the basis of which two state-owned enterprises in Sumy Region had the right to permanently use land. Due to their absence, the regional StateGeoCadastre drew up an act of unauthorised occupation of these plots. To prevent the transfer of the land to unauthorised persons, it was included in the list for an auction for the right to lease, but no auction was held. Then, thanks to the controlled officials of the regional StateGeoCadastre, the plots were transferred to the ownership of pre-determined citizens under the guise of exercising their right to free land. The condition for obtaining land ownership was signing an agreement to lease it to a private agricultural holding before the land was acquired. The deal was in place from 2017 to 2021.
The NABU also published audio of conversations between the participants in the scheme and refuted Solskyy’s arguments.
On the morning of 26 April, the HACC arrested Solskyy with an alternative bail of UAH 75 million. The bail was paid on the same day, and the minister was released.