A hotel will not be built in Kiev near Babi Yar

The authorities of Kiev rejected a plan for the hotel construction in the area of Babi Yar - the place where at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, thousands of Jews were shot and where the Nazis had brought the remains of more then 100 thousand people of various nationalities. The veto on the construction of the hotel was put by the Mayor of Kiev Leonid Chernovetsky.

The hotel construction project in Kiev in the area of Babi Yar attracted wide publicity both in Ukraine and abroad. The project of hotel construction near the memorial of victims of the Nazi regime in the beginning of last week was reported in a number of Ukrainian newspapers. Supporters of the construction insisted that Kiev is a need for new hotels in anticipation of the upcoming European Football Championship, which in 2012 will take place in Ukraine along with Poland. At the same time, opponents of the construction insisted that, the erection of the luxury hotel in the immediate vicinity of the tragedy place is disrespectful to the memory of victims of the Nazi regime, which were executed in Babi Yar.

Hotel in Kiev near Babi Yar was to be built in the immediate vicinity of the burial place of the victims, on Melnikova Street, which runs directly through the memorial. The hotel construction project was mentioned as a part of the program for the development of hotel infrastructure in the capital of Ukraine until 2020, adopted by the Kiev Rada.

However, according to the Mayor of Kiev Leonid Chernovetsky, the issue of hotel construction was not discussed that time, nothing to say about project approval. According to Ukrainian law, construction of leisure facilities close to the monuments of national importance, memorials and sites of mass graves is prohibited.

Nevertheless, in the Kyiv Rada still discusses the possibility of building a new hotel in the vicinity of the Babi Yar, which, however, will not be in the close proximity of the mass grave. At the same time, various social organizations of Kiev, including the Wiesenthal Center, believe that the project involves the construction of a hotel in the heart of burial place.

Anyways, the Mayor of Kiev announced that the construction in the area of the Babi Yar will not be conducted, and this solution is a final one.