President signs law on fight against land raids

"President Petro Poroshenko signed the law of Ukraine introducing amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine on resolving issues of collective ownership of land, improving land use rights in tracts of agricultural land, preventing raider attacks and stimulating irrigation in Ukraine," the statement reads.

It says that the implementation of the law will create an effective mechanism for the use of agricultural land and create the necessary conditions for preventing raider attacks and stimulating irrigation in Ukraine.

The law determines the peculiarities of the use and disposal of land plots located in tracts of agricultural lands, as well as field-protective forest belts that limit such a tract. In particular, the document envisages the right of the owners and users of agricultural land intended for personal farming, located in a tract of agricultural lands, to use them also for commercial agricultural production without changing the intended purpose of such land plots. It also establishes the right of owners of land plots of all forms of ownership, located in a tract of agricultural lands, to exchange such land plots.

The document specifies the particularities of the disposal of land and the use of land left in collective ownership after the distribution of land plots between the owners of land shares. The law, in particular, recognizes as property of territorial communities in whose territory they are located the lands of collective agricultural enterprises which have ceased their operation (except for privately owned land plots).

The law takes effect from the day following the day it is published.

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