In the evening of Dec. 3, HUR representatives entered the sanatorium grounds and took control of the site, the journalists wrote.
At that moment, servicemembers from one of the Ukrainian army units were already present there. As of the law enforcement source, quoted by UP, the intelligence officers allegedly “took 10 servicemembers prisoner,” but later released them, after which they barricaded themselves on the sanatorium grounds and refused to let in representatives of law enforcement and other state military bodies.
The outlet also noted that the Military Law Enforcement Service and the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) were called to the scene, but the SBI did not show up. In addition, according to UP’s source, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi allegedly arrived at the site of the incident.
A source in HUR told the outlet that the people who were on the sanatorium grounds were there illegally.
Babel outlet wrote that the clash occurred because both sides claim the right to lease the property.
In comments to the media, HUR said its soldiers were on the grounds legally, as the landowner signed direct agreements with one of the military units for the duration of martial law. According to HUR, under current legislation these agreements do not require additional approvals, and the documents of other formations were annulled by the military administration.
At the same time, as Ukrainska Pravda noted, after the start of the full-scale invasion, a military unit leased the sanatorium premises, used its grounds under an operational order from the Commander of the Ground Forces, and had the necessary approvals from the Kyiv city military administration and the facility’s management.
The buildings there are sealed and not in use, but over the past month HUR representatives have reportedly come to the site several times, demanding that the sanatorium be vacated, the outlet wrote.
According to Babel, in 2020 a court ordered the sanatorium to be seized, and in 2022 the SBI announced that the property had been returned to state ownership. It was transferred to the management of the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA), which valued it at 60.7 million hryvnias ($1.55 million).
Part of the land plot and sanatorium buildings passed to a company linked to businessman Borys Kaufman. He may obtain the remaining territory for use and is preparing to secure Kyiv City Council approval to redevelop the sanatorium site.