Minister Tkachenko will culturally gift the "Flying Saucer" to Vagif Aliyev

Minister Tkachenko will culturally gift the "Flying Saucer" to Vagif Aliyev

Despite numerous statements by Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko, the “Flying Saucer” at Lybidska is still not included in the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine.

This is not surprising, as the State Register has not been updated since the times of Minister of Culture Yevhen Nyshchuk. But there is also no official information about the inclusion of the “Flying Saucer” in the State Register in the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA). This means that if the well-known Kyiv businessman-developer Vagif Aliyev (pictured right) wants to expand the Ocean Mall shopping center at the expense of the unregistered architectural monument, he can quite do so.

This became known to KyivVlada (KV) from the response of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine, and comments from the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection of KCSA.

In August 2019, a significant outcry arose regarding the fate of the “Flying Saucer” at Lybidska (Antonych Street, 180) due to the detailed plan of territories (DPT) in the Holosiivskyi district, funded by a firm from the group of the capital’s businessman-developer Vagif Aliyev. The main purpose of the DPT seems to be the completion of the Ocean Mall shopping center, which could destroy the historic building, which KV wrote about back in early 2018.

A year later, in response to concerns about the fate of the “Flying Saucer,” the Minister of Culture and Information Policy (MCIP) Oleksandr Tkachenko reacted by writing on his Facebook page on October 8, 2020, that the MCIP expert council included the building in the “list of the register of architectural and monumental art monuments.”

“From the Ministry’s side, everything possible was done. I hand over the baton to KCSA and Vitaliy Klychko: you need to include the “saucer” in the list of newly discovered cultural heritage monuments so that we can complete the process of its addition to the State Register of Local Monuments. Why? To protect the beautiful architectural object from ‘unfortunate accidents.’ Suddenly, someone might want to make room for a shopping center. You have five days for this,” the Minister of Culture reported.

The Minister’s words were later confirmed by a release from the Ministry of Culture dated October 19, 2020, stating: “On October 7, 2020, the Expert Commission on the Accounting of Cultural Heritage Objects decided to recommend adding the building of the Ukrainian Institute of Scientific and Technical Expertise and Information (known as the ‘Flying Saucer’) to the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine as an architectural and monumental art monument of local significance.”

On the day of the Minister’s post, October 8, a message appeared on the KCSA website stating that the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection included the Ukrainian Institute of Scientific and Technical Expertise and Information Building at Antonycha Street, 180 (the “Flying Saucer” at Lybidska), in the list of newly discovered cultural heritage objects and sent the corresponding order to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy.

Letter from the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection to the Ministry of Culture

“The next step is for the Ministry of Culture to grant the ‘saucer’ the status of a monument and include it in the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine. As noted in the Department, this should happen as soon as possible. The institute building is one of the bright examples of Soviet modernism embodied by architect Florian Yuriev,” stated the KCSA release.

On October 20, architect Vitaliy Molochko reported on his Facebook page that Oleksandr Tkachenko signed order No. 2202 for the inclusion of the “Flying Saucer” in the “register of cultural heritage objects as a monument of architecture and monumental art” with protection No. 3000-Kv. On January 26, this year, Oleksandr Tkachenko in his column for “Livyi Bereh” stated: “... the ‘Flying Saucer’ at Lybidska was included in the list of the register of architectural and monumental art monuments. Now developers can lay off it.”

However, on the Ministry of Culture’s website under the “Documents” section, there is no order No. 2202 by Tkachenko regarding the inclusion of the “Flying Saucer” in any register. Although there is also a lack of many other orders, which can be explained by the elementary negligence of officials.

On February 24, KV sent an information request to the Ministry of Culture.

On March 9, the Ministry of Culture essentially duplicated architect Vitaliy Molochko’s post, stating that Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko’s order No. 2202 dated October 20, 2020, included the “Flying Saucer” in the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine under protection No. 3000-Kv.

However, there is no “Flying Saucer” in the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine.

Iryna Zolotar, the communications advisor of the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection of KCSA, explained to KV that the Ministry of Culture stopped updating the State Register of Immovable Monuments back in 2017. The Ministry does not inform local authorities about decisions regarding cultural heritage objects, which creates complex and ambiguous situations for many objects in Kyiv and throughout Ukraine. In particular, the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection has been waiting for a response from the Ministry of Culture regarding the “Flying Saucer” for half a year.

“Thus, the ‘Flying Saucer’ is still listed as a newly discovered cultural heritage object. If a dishonest owner starts conducting any work not agreed upon following the established order, the Department, lacking official information, can only respond within their powers. Under current legislation, illegal works on newly discovered cultural heritage objects and on a monument are absolutely different. For newly discovered ones, only a prescription can be issued, but financial sanctions cannot be imposed,” Iryna Zolotar explained.

As a reminder, the “Flying Saucer” at Lybidska is a building of the second wave of Soviet modernism, built in 1971 according to the project of architects Florian Yuriev and Lev Novikov. There is a reconstruction project for the “Flying Saucer” aimed at giving the building a new life and preserving its unique architectural appearance.

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko (faction “Servant of the People”) was appointed Minister of Culture and Information Policy on June 4, 2020. Before him, the Ministry of Culture was headed by Volodymyr Borodyanskyi (from the Cabinet of Oleksiy Honcharuk) from September 2, 2019, to March 4, 2020, who was remembered for the misinformation bill. Previously, from April 14, 2016, to August 29, 2019, the Minister of Culture was Yevhen Nyshchuk (Cabinet of Volodymyr Hroysman).