Sergey Lishchina. Photo: Andrey Mosienko
Sergiy Lishchyna, an entrepreneur and founder of Fanplit plant, claims that Kyiv developers, who earlier used their administrative resources and influenced the local government to close down the plant, want to buy the plant now.
"Developers who are interested in our territory — almost 12 hectares, which is a lot for Darnitsa district — want to simply take our land from us. We are talking about the so-called elite club of developers, which was formed under the previous government. They are quite aggressively selecting all potential land plots in the city." Sergiy Lishchyna added: "No one’s even hiding their intentions. There is hope that the new or new-old authorities of Kyiv will act differently. How do civilized states act in such cases? For example, they offer a territory to put production outside of the city and compensation of expenses."
Lishchyna also said that the local authorities initiated the illegal shutdown of the plant with the help of the residents of neighboring Comfort Town. And all attempts to resume its work were unsuccessful. Lishchyna said: "We are submitting endless applications to the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources to partially reopen the plant but to no avail. Last year, the ownership structure of the company changed, and now the main shareholder is Ukrplita. Let me put it this way: the attack on Fanplit is very significant for the whole country. I am talking about a unique woodworking enterprise. It turns out that now the plant is idling, and the Ukrainians are forced to buy not domestic but imported product. Our country is losing in the result."
Fanplit is the only Ukrainian manufacturer of MDF. Comfort Town residential complex was built near the enterprise of Ihor Nikonov. Later, the local authorities succeeded to stop the operation of the enterprise via court.