A new presidential decree on the transfer of state-owned agricultural land to community management, land laws have not been adopted ... What to expect? Mykhailo Sokolov, Deputy Chairman of Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC), shared his opinion with the "Comments" publication.

"The presidential decree on the transfer of state-owned agricultural lands to community management is an extremely positive step. The Verkhovna Rada is openly delaying the adoption of the bill №2194. Obviously, many people are not financially interested in its adoption. There will be less reason for resistance now.

Judging by the information published by the head of the State Geocadastre Roman Leshchenko, the opposition to such a step was not in vain. The availability of this land at the disposal of the agency allowed the former leadership of the State Geocadastre and the government to distribute it centrally to "whoever needs it". Thus, since 2017, approximately 6 million hectares of land have been removed from state ownership. In 2017, we had a total of 10.5 million hectares of agricultural land in state ownership.

If we estimate the losses in funds, it is about UAH 10 billion. We think this assessment is underestimated. It does not include the value of minerals that lie beneath already distributed areas.

We fighting for a billion-dollar loan, and here UAH 10 billion were simply stolen from the state during 3 years. In fact, UAH 3 billion annually. Unfortunately, we are late in many ways.

The problem is that it cannot be said that these lands were distributed illegally. Formally, it was all issued as land intended for personal farming. Every Ukrainian citizen could formally use this right. However, in reality the "right" people received the land. It was often agreed with them in advance that they would sell their land to whom they needed it upon receipt. After all, the lands allocated for personal farming do not fall under the moratorium. That is why they can be sold. And now, we can see that some people have got several thousand hectares of land.

However, there were cases when the land was given to the same people several times. And the law stipulates that a person can receive it once. Moreover, this is a direct violation. Such land can be returned to state ownership. We do not currently know the exact amount of this land. We need to investigate it. In theory, it is possible to return the land if the conspiracy can be proved. When people were offered to use their passport data for money to get land. However, it is very difficult to do it in this case.

Unfortunately, the information about the outright wasting of state lands did not stir our society - politicians, public activists. We only hope that the State Geocadastre, having announced the information, will insist on returning at least part of the land back to state and municipal ownership. "