Ukraine MPs announce hunger strike against alleged garbage blockade

Oleh Bereziuk, the head of Self-Reliance (Samopomich) faction in Ukraine’s parliament, announced a hunger strike on June 19 demanding that the central government stop blocking the removal of garbage from the city of Lviv in what he described as a political stunt to undermine the mayor’s public opinion. Instead, Bereziuk demanded the government aid in the approval of a new location for garbage disposal. Bereziuk is the close advisor to Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, who is a contender for the Ukrainian presidency in the 2019 elections. They allege the blockade is intentional in order to undermine support for the Lviv mayor.

 

The problem of waste removal from Lviv, Ukraine’s seventh-largest city, emerged a year ago, after a fire in a regional landfill in late May 2016. The landfill, where all the garbage from Lviv and nearby towns was deposited, was closed, forcing Lviv authorities to move garbage from the city to distant locations, up to hundreds of kilometers. But even shipment of garbage to distant locations was being blocked, Bereziuk alleged.

 

“All the regions of Ukraine, under pressure from Kyiv, refused to take garbage from Lviv,” Berezyuk wrote in his open letter on June 19. He also reported that police used to pressure garbage transporters and landfill owners from providing assistance. He also highlighted that the regional state administration, controlled by the Kyiv government, deliberately failed to approve the location of a new landfill.

 

Lviv has accumulated 8,500 tons of garbage that they have nowhere to transport, prompting a high risk of intestinal infections, city authorities said.

 

On June 20, Oksana Syroyid, the deputy head of Ukraine’s parliament, joined Bereziuk in his hunger strike.

 

Alexander Paraschiy: Indeed, Lviv residents have become hostage to the political rivalry between Sadovyi and Ukrainian President Poroshenko. By imposing the garbage blockade, the central government is solving numerous political aims that include ruining his poll ratings and those of his Self-Reliance party, as well as pressuring the Self-Reliance faction in parliament.

 

For instance, the same Kyiv authorities have been blaming Self-Reliance for initiating the winter trade blockade of the occupied territories in Donbas, which then forced the government to introduce its own official blockade. That has merely caused occupied Donbas to integrate even more tightly with Russia.

 

Nonetheless, Self-Reliance remains on the political radar screen, particularly among reform-oriented youth, and has the potential to outperform the president’s faction in the 2019 elections.

 

So far, Bereziuk’s gambit has only attracted the attention of Prime Minister Groysman, who called upon Ukrainian cities to help Lviv to remove its garbage. But so far, the central authorities have not yielded and we expect any solution will involve back channels, without any admission of wrongdoing and pressure remaining on Sadovyi.