The total amount of land controlled by oligarchs, corrupt individuals, and large
agribusinesses is thus over nine million hectares, exceeding 28 percent of the country’s arable land. The
rest is used by over eight million Ukrainian farmers.
Part 5 - Why was there a moratorium on land sales and how was it lifted?
Before the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, all land was the property of the state, with farmers working on state and collective farms.
In the 1990s, guided and supported by the IMF and other international institutions, the government privatized much of Ukraine’s farmland which resulted in the growing concentration of land in the hands of a new oligarchic class. To stop this process, the government instituted a moratorium in 2001, which halted further privatization and prevented almost all transfers of private land. 96 percent of agricultural land in Ukraine, or about 40 million hectares, was subjected to the moratorium.
While the moratorium prevented further purchases of land, farmland could still be leased. Many small landowners leased their land to both domestic and foreign corporations. Although the moratorium was meant to be temporary, it was extended multiple times until it was lifted in July 2021.
The law legalizing the sale of farmland and lifting the country’s 19-year moratorium on land transactions was passed on March 31, 2020. Ending the moratorium was a key condition for aid from Western institutions – part of a series of policy reforms that the IMF conditioned a US$8 billion loan package upon.
Faced with a deep economic crisis, an ongoing civil war, and the rapidly escalating COVID-19 pandemic, Ukraine risked plunging into default without the loan package. The timing of the bill’s passage coincided with mandatory COVID-19 stay-at-home orders in place across the country, effectively quelling any further protests or demonstrations.
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