In Lviv, the court is considering a pensioner’s lawsuit against the restriction of free travel

On October 22 this year, the Lviv District Administrative Court held a preliminary hearing on the lawsuit filed by pensioner Olha Demchuk against the executive committee of Andriy Sadovyi’s administration to invalidate and cancel the decision of this structure.

Lviv City Council Officials Against the Constitution of Ukraine?

In June 2024, an unconstitutional message appeared on the website of the Lviv Mayor’s Office stating that starting July 1, 2024, two categories of Ukrainian citizens were restricted in their right to use Article 33 of the Constitution of Ukraine in the Lviv community, meaning that officials decided to locally restrict freedom of movement.

The Constitutional Court of Ukraine has emphasized that an indispensable component of human dignity is access to minimum social benefits that can ensure a sufficient and decent standard of living. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in shaping the social policy of the state, must guarantee the effective realization of the right to respect for human dignity, in particular, by providing pensions, other types of social benefits and assistance to persons in need of social protection.

The incompetent official Oleh Zabarylo wrote that “the restriction applies to those categories to whom the travel privilege was granted by the city itself.” First of all, the government of Ukraine granted the privilege to pensioners by Resolution No. 354, and finally enshrined it in Resolution No. 555. For the uninformed official Zabarylo, we would like to inform you that government resolutions are implemented throughout Ukraine. After all, Article 143 of the Constitution states: “Local self-government bodies are subordinate to the relevant executive authorities in the exercise of their powers.” In addition, the so-called “city” has no money of its own: all the funds in the city’s treasury are citizens’ taxes, which hired officials can use for the benefit of taxpayers.

Article 38 of the Constitution of Ukraine provides Lviv residents with the right to participate in the management of public affairs, in national and local referendums, to freely elect and be elected to state and local government bodies, and to participate in the preparation of local legislation. However, there was no information that the local Lviv executive committee law restricting their rights was discussed with pensioners.

Is it possible to repeal or partially cancel government decrees No. 354 and No. 555 on benefits for pensioners to use public transport an unlimited number of times? It is possible. To do this, the mayor should not just rubber-stamp his legally flawed decision (in which he cynically refers to government resolutions 354 and 555), but should appeal to the Constitutional Court, having previously received legal justification from the

• or the President of Ukraine;
• or 45 people’s deputies;
• or the Supreme Court;
• or the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.

Did Sadovyi apply to these authorities? Such information has not been publicly disseminated. Sadovyi refers to and recognizes only the decisions of his obedient executive committee No. 690 and No. 1199. Sadovyi also sees himself as a great local figure who can do whatever he wants. In 2019, by decision No. 61, Sadovyi implemented the provisions of the Constitution and government decree on free and unlimited public transportation for pensioners and people with disabilities of group III, because it was beneficial to him at the time, but now he has canceled it.

Mayor Andriy Sadovyi’s savings on pensioners

What’s the motivation? It’s funny: 10% of pensioners make more than 60 trips a month. If they are limited in these privileged trips, Zabarylo says, “it will save the city budget more than UAH 30 million a year.” How much is more than that? And the remaining 90% of pensioners who do not use public transportation 60 times a month, how many millions do they save for the city treasury? Official Zabarylo is silent about this. Not a word from the mayor himself.

At the same time, Sadovyi’s subordinates will not tell us what electricity losses occur in the tram and trolleybus power grids and at the traction power substations of these networks. Moreover, two identical trolleybuses or trams, on the same route, on the same day, under the same weather conditions, will use different amounts of electricity by two different drivers. That is, electricity consumption clearly depends on the manner of driving electric vehicles.

Have you ever heard officials Sadovyi, Zabarylo, or Oleskiv say that it is not pensioners but tram and trolleybus drivers who cause financial losses to the Lviv budget? Instead, Oleskiv, who is the head of Lviv’s transport department, told the Tvoje Misto newspaper in an interview that electric transport is not public transport.

Lviv public transportation is a separate topic for highlighting the incompetence of Andriy Sadovyi and his officials.

It is also worth paying attention to the deep mental gap between the unscrupulous mayor Andriy Sadovyi, who is not looking for ways to improve the social situation of pensioners and the disabled, contrary to the Constitution of Ukraine, and the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, who is seeking to have the government of Denys Shmyhal and the Verkhovna Rada settle the issue of compensation for the cost of preferential public transportation in all Ukrainian cities. Which of them, Sadovyi or Klitschko, has a more statesmanlike mindset? Vitali Klitschko cares about social improvement for all pensioners in Ukraine, while Andriy Sadovyi creates social deterioration for Lviv pensioners.

Sabotage of a court case

Judge Olga Krutko is hearing the lawsuit filed by pensioner Olga Demchuk against the executive committee of Andriy Sadovyi’s administration in the Lviv District Administrative Court. The judge stated that the legal department, headed by Helena Payonkevych, had failed to send Olga Demchuk a response to the lawsuit in time. A representative of the legal department, Andriy Kulyk, told the judge that the response was sent (it was difficult to understand how it was sent) through some system to a pensioner who did not have the Internet or a computer.

According to the law, which the chief lawyer of Lviv either does not know or deliberately ignores, Olga Demchuk had to receive the response to the lawsuit no later than two weeks before the court hearing in order to read it, comprehend Payonkevich’s legal casuistry regarding the social deterioration of her status as a pensioner, write her objection to Payonkevich’s response, and send it to the court.

If the trial was scheduled for October 21, then the plaintiff Olga Demchuk should have received Payonkevich’s response in paper format no later than October 4. Instead, a representative of the legal department, Andriy Kulyk, said that the text of Olga Demchuk’s lawsuit was provided to him a little too late to respond, and that this was the reason for the unpleasant incident.

For some unknown reason, Judge Olena Krutko did not ask what Andriy Kulyk, an employee of the legal department, was doing in court if the lawsuit was against the executive committee. The mayor was supposed to be present on the bench, as he was primarily responsible for the case in his capacity as the chief executive committee member.

The judge could have asked how it was possible that we did not have time to send a response. Pensioner Olha Demchuk’s lawsuit was filed with the court on August 27, 2024. On the website of the mayor’s administration, the legal department published an announcement on September 23 that the case would be heard. How long does it take for the entire legal department to write and send the plaintiff a response to her lawsuit in time?

And a related question: why does the Lviv territorial community pay Helena Payonkevych a salary of one million hryvnias a year? In addition, why did Andriy Sadovyi add three more people to the staff of the legal department in September? Probably, to make it more fun for pensioners and disabled people of group III to talk, sip coffee, and go for smoke breaks at the expense of transportation restrictions.

Judge Olena Krutko postponed the preparatory hearing for a month so that the unscrupulous Helena Payonkevych would have enough time to send the plaintiff Olga Demchuk a response in paper format.

Yaroslav Levkiv for LEOPOLIS.news