Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Feldman urges the Kharkiv community, all residents of Kharkiv who are concerned with the ecological situation in the city to express their support and solidarity with the position of people, who struggle against Kharkiv Coke and Chemical Plant for more than a year.
“It is a court day tomorrow. And the health and life of people depend on this court decision. There is no overstatement in these words. People, who live near the plant, suffer from chronic occupational diseases. And the matter is in more than one generation. I ask everyone not to consider this statement as the attempt to press the case. Of course, the decision must be made only according to the letter of the law. But I just want us not to forget about the spirit of the law as well. We must remember that justice is not an abstract notion, when the matter is in children, who have to breathe poison every day. It is not just children, who live in Novobavarskyi district. It is our children. I will never be tired to repeat: “There are no your children. No my children. There are OUR children.” I just want a judge, who will take the decision tomorrow, to remember about this. And I also ask the Head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration Yuliia Svitlychna to personally interfere in the situation with the plant. I recognize that the situation is difficult. It requires complex solutions. And on no account people should be left without jobs. We should talk not about the shutdown of the plant, but about the measures, which should be taken to reequip the plant in accordance with the European environmental regulations. It is just impossible to solve this issue without the support from the state.
For many years, my voters and I ‘toll an alarm bell’ on the situation around ‘KOKSOKHIM.’ It is not a local problem. Remaining indifferent and apathetic is a flawed practice. People, let’s not forget about the classics: “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” The bell of ‘Koksokhim’ tolls for each of us.
