Zip-line over the Dnieper

We keep on struggling for our ideas and against the lawlessness of the raiders

At the website of the Kyiv City Administration, we have registered a petition demanding to dismount the dangerous attraction whose unregulated operation poses a grave threat to the health and lives of Kyiv residents and tourists:

This petition concerns everyone, whatever aspect you may take:

• Ensuring our SAFETY;
• Combating the RAIDING which has already become a traditional way of doing business in Ukraine over the last several years;
• Fighting CORRUPTION in the Ukrainian government;
• Feeling HELPLESS in the face of LAWLESSNESS engulfing the entire country

The capital of Ukraine deserves to have a safe and high-quality attraction!

The Kyiv zip-line over the Dnieper operates against the law

According to the information provided by the acting director general of PLESO Utility Enterprise, O.M. Yusypenko, the term of the agreement made between TOV Arena Amusement Park and Pleso Utility Enterprise for placement of the attraction expired on October 15, 2017, and as of October 19, 2017 the debt of TOV Arena Amusement Park to Pleso Utility Enterprise made about 46,000 UAH.

In explanation of its activities, LLC Arena Amusement Park submitted to Pleso Utility Enterprise the control chart 17040141-Dn/17060178-Pch for temporary amenity breach for the period from November 28, 2017 to May 28, 2018 (WITHOUT THE RIGHT TO OPERATE). According to the dates, the amenity chart was issued after the expiry of the agreement for placement of the zip-line attraction. This document raises certain questions concerning the quality of work of the Urban Amenity Department. With the documents submitted to the urban Amenity Department, TOV Arena Amusement Park can’t have received the control chart for this period of time! Such chart is issued for amenity breaches during installation of an attraction, but in no way can it extend an order by an executive body of the Kyiv City Administration and the agreement for placement of a mobile attraction (zip-line) in the city of Kyiv dated July 19, 2017, with both documents having expired on October 15, 2017.

In addition, LLC Arena Amusement Park has failed to satisfy several key requirements specified in the warranty letter which was made before signing the agreement between Pleso Utility Enterprise and LLC Arena Amusement Park. The main requirement which the company has failed to satisfy is to obtain a permit to operate a highly dangerous attraction, such permit being the document without which the company cannot operate any attraction!

Nevertheless, the attraction is currently operating at large, which you can see yourselves by taking a stroll to the observation platform near the People’s Friendship Arch.

The dangerous counterpart over the Dnieper

Six months after the incident, an unknown company which gave no information about its origins began construction works in the same site (the observation platform near the People’s Friendship Arch – the Central Beach) to mount a zip-line, and spread information about the “returning of the Zip-Line over the Dnieper” widely using photographs and videos about the SkyPark Zip-Line, and therefore giving its potential visitors a false impression of the safe attraction.

Further enquiries to Pleso Utility Enterprise, Labor Safety Department, and Urban Amenity Department helped us to find out that this company is the abovementioned LLC Arena Amusement Park which is in charge of the operation of this attraction, “Zip-Line over the Dnieper.”

Here are several photographs to compare the SkyPark’s Zip-Line over the Dnieper with the “new” zip-line:

The launch platform of the Arena Amusement Park’s zip-line, allegedly “expert-designed” with a “unique” signboard

The launch platform of the SkyPark Zip-Line

Arena Amusement Park’s design of the price list

The price list of the SkyPark’s Zip-Line over the Dnieper

The launch platform by Arena Amusement Park

The launch platform by SkyPark

The arrival tower by Arena Amusement Park

The arrival tower by SkyPark

The finish platform by Arena Amusement Park

The finish platform by SkyPark

At the moment, the Zip-Line over the Dnieper doesn’t have the required permits but continues to provide services to its visitors. Even at the first sight, there is a number of instances where safety rules are violated:

• the attraction still lacks the automatic exit gates to ensure safe start to a journey down the line
• at the arrival platform, there are no mats and automatic brakes
• the arrival tower lacks railings for people to come down safely
•  the zip-line instructors work in the open platform without belay systems
• the gear is returned to the start platform with the use of motorbikes moving across the pedestrian area which is against the traffic rules
• when visitors pay for the services, they do not receive any tickets or other documents confirming the payment

Besides, SKYPARK specialists claim that the finish structure has been installed with a breach of design standards and may not be able to bear the strain from the cable wires attached to it.

Events of March 4, 2017

At 4 am on Saturday, a dozen of well-built young men visited the launch platform of SkyPark’s Zip-Line over the Dnieper. Threatening the guard, they climbed the metal structures and cut all wires of the zip-line. The metal ropes under the tension of 500 kg fell uncontrollably on the embankment and into the Dnieper river, and damaged the power transmission lines; luckily, they did no damage to the few cars that would occasionally appear on the road below.

After that, the young men, who introduced themselves as members of Kyiv’s urban amenity service but continued to hide their faces under balaclavas, brought down the 18-meter-tall tower of the finish platform which fell on the beach. The wrecked arrival tower was taken apart by the SkyPark staff who were forcibly kept out of the scene and therefore could not protect the attraction site.

Уже після інциденту голова Дніпровської районної в місті Києві державної адміністрації П. Онофрійчук розповів, що Тролей був «демонтований» Дніпровською районною в місті Києві державною адміністрацією спільно з Благоустроєм. Причиною демонтажу всіма представниками нашої бюрократичної системи була названа начебто нестача дозволів на право знаходження об’єкту. Проте адміністрація компанії SkyPark була і лишається переконаною в неприхованій рейдерській атаці на об’єкт.

Спираючись на низку порушень, що були вчинені під час «демонтажу» атракціону, ТОВ «СКАЙПАРК» було подано заяву про вчинення злочину, на основі якої було відкрито кримінальне провадження №42017101060000089 за ч.1 ст.194 КК України. На жаль, на даний момент будь-яких результатів по даному кримінальному провадженню так і не з’явилося.

It was after the incident that the head of Dniprovsky District State Administration in the city of Kyiv, Mr. P. Onofriychuk, told the press that the Zip-Line had been “dismounted” by the District State Administration in cooperation with the city’s amenity service. All representatives of Kyiv’s notorious bureaucracy explained the facility had been dismounted, allegedly, due to lack of permits for the attraction to operate at the site. However, the SkyPark administration has always been, and will always remain confident that their attraction has become a victim of a raiding act.

Basing on a number of violations of the law committed during the so-called “dismounting” the attraction, LLC SKYPARK has filed a crime report which resulted in commencing proceedings in the case No. 42017101060000089 under Part 1, Article 194 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Unfortunately, the criminal proceedings have not given any results so far.

Zip-Line over the Dnieper – the story of the legend

Nowadays, almost everyone seems to know what a zip-line is. The most well-known one in Ukraine is the Zip-Line over the Dnieper in Kyiv. In just several years, flying over Ukraine’s longest river has become one of the most favorite kinds of entertainment for both guests and residents of the capital city. This zip-line was built by professional cavers who decided they could use extreme tourism gear for entertainment as well.

This is what Mykola Poplavko, a cofounder of SkyPark, tells about the origins of the idea: “Everything began with caving. Then we thought, why don’t we ride down the rope for fun – instead of the sport of taking a person from point A to point B?” The first zip line over the Dnieper river was built in 2006, but it wasn’t in Kyiv – it was in the village of Khalepya, Kyiv Region. The first zip line over the Dnieper was 300 m long. In 2007, we visited a zip line festival in Russia, and in the autumn of that year we organized a similar even near Kyiv. We tried to surpass what we had seen in Russia, so we built a line 600 m long! “

Ever since, the SkyPark team has become a permanent member for all kinds of sports, tourist and entertainment events all over Ukraine where it came to mount temporary zip lines of varied length.

The idea of building a fixed-site attraction, the Zip-Line over the Dnieper in Kyiv, came up in 2011. It was no easy task to bring such a new and unusual entertainment facility to Ukraine’s market. For a whole year, the SkyPark team worked to obtain all kinds of permits, certificates and, most importantly, the reasons to bring home to Kyiv government that the city needs this sort of attraction.

In 2012, SkyPark built the first fixed-site zip-line over the Dnieper in Kyiv. Its only rope line connected the observation platform near the People’s Friendship Arch with the Central Beach on Trukhaniv Island.

After just several months of its operation, the Zip-Line over the Dnieper has become very popular throughout Ukraine. Residents and guests of the capital came to like the new attraction so much that it received the golden medal “Quality Mark 2012” as “The Best Tourist Attraction.” In the same year, the Zip-Line over the Dnieper in Kyiv was entered into the national register of records as Ukraine’s longest zip-line.

Within several years, the Zip-Line over the Dnieper in Kyiv has grown into an attraction featuring 4 parallel lines for simultaneous rides of several visitors, automatic exit gates and automatic brake system at the final stage.