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Send an email to Nolan and snipers are only six hours to the east of here by car as it has been now for more than four years but there’s hardly any evidence of it in this city of about 52,000 people on the bucolic left bank of the Dnieper River in central Ukraine or International Workers’ Day—the scene is festive on the sandy Dnieper River shore in Horishni Plavni You had to sign up with local officials weeks ahead of time to get a spot in one of the beachside wooden gazebos for the holiday people are out in force grilling shashlik—Ukrainians’ version of barbecue—as they enjoy the first official weekend of summer Many residents took to the Dnieper River shore for the May Day holiday The men turn the skewers of grilling meat with one hand and hold a beer in the other Women sit in the shade and prepare spreads of grilled vegetables and vinaigrette salad—a Ukrainian specialty made of chopped beets Badminton is a particularly popular game among the children Russian and American pop hits blare from stereo speakers Russia’s proxy war in the embattled eastern Donbas region is a frequent topic of conversation around the grills and picnic tables is the impending delivery of Javelin anti-tank missiles from the United States “America is the only country that cares about us,” says a veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan “We’ll never forget what your country has done for us,” the veteran adds He follows up with a handshake and a shot glass filled with something strong The move to rename Horishni Plavni from its Soviet-era name of “Komsomolsk” was not popular among older residents another Red Army veteran stands and shakes your hand and raises a shot glass “I’m honored to be with a citizen of the country that first landed a man on the moon,” this veteran says the past is always there—whether you look for it or not Upstream dams have caused the Dnieper River to swell around Horishni Plavni the river looks different on this day than it did during World War II from 1941 to 1945 The old people who had lived in the area during the war say the river ran red with the blood of German soldiers who died while trying to escape the Red Army’s advance fishermen wonder aloud about how many bones must be on the riverbed Reminders of Soviet military history—World War II in particular—are prolific in Horishni Plavni and soldiers’ helmets that are still frequently unearthed in the woods Other reminders of the military past are more overt children slide down the marble ramps of a stark several old Soviet tanks are on permanent display Teenagers sit in the shade of the turrets and drink beer and listen to music Children at play are common sight in Horishni Plavni Memorial plaques and statues honor fallen Soviet soldiers from World War II and the war in Afghanistan There’s also a memorial to the Communist International Brigades that fought in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s In the city center there is another war memorial with an eternal flame Youth volunteers founded Horishni Plavni in 1960 as a place to live for workers in the nearby iron-ore mines The city’s original name was “Komsomolsk,” named after the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League The town was renamed Horishni Plavni in 2016 as part of Ukraine’s decommunization laws which went into effect in 2015 as a way to curb Russian cultural influence in Ukraine amid the ongoing war (Horishni Plavni roughly translates from Ukrainian to English as “upper marshes,” which was the name of the original village that stood three kilometers from the modern city center.) all Soviet-era names of settlements and roads have been changed to new All reminders and relics of the Soviet Union have been removed or made illegal—including playing the Soviet national anthem and displays of the hammer and sickle flag A memorial to the Soviet Union’s soldiers who fought in World War II Horishni Plavni’s main thoroughfare was once called Lenin Street Now it’s Heroes of the Dnieper River Street The statue of Vladimir Lenin that once stood in the city center is gone and only an empty pedestal remains a multicolored Soviet-era sign—more of a monument with oversized concrete and metal letters—still announces your arrival into “Komsomolsk.” easily overlooked black and white metal road sign says simply including the party members and young patriots who founded Komsomolsk in 1960 the decommunization laws have sparked anger and indignation It’s not easy for people in the twilight of their lives to be told that all reminders and symbols of the collected travails of their youths are to be forgotten Many buildings in Horishni Plavni date from the Soviet era the decommunization measures are generally looked upon positively The fall of the Soviet Union came with open access to information from abroad and the chance to do a little traveling thus lifting the veil on the Soviet Union’s propaganda lies about the nature of the world beyond its borders Especially for Ukraine’s Afghanistan veterans who are now in their 50s and 60s As young men they went to war when their country told them to The realities of day-to-day life dominate most people’s concerns in Horishni Plavni It’s the same way in most Ukrainian cities Horishni Plavni’s economy orbits around iron-ore mining and one company called Ferrexpo a Ukrainian mining company that evolved from the Soviet-era the Ferrexpo logo is plastered everywhere in the city from hotel signage to the rubber molding on speed bumps The central Ukrainian city of Horishni Plavni is replete with green space The mining industry remains a financial boon for the local economy accounting for about 80 percent of the city’s jobs Horishni Plavni’s unemployment rate is about 0.04 percent—among the lowest in Ukraine Horishni Plavni has one of the highest birth rates and lowest poverty rates among Ukrainian cities Horishni Plavni is one of the best places to live in Ukraine—particularly for families with school-aged children Near the Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Horishni Plavni there are nine kindergartens and six public schools Each public school educates students from primary school to high school levels The natural resources of the region are similarly abundant There is so much iron under the ground that compasses don’t work right untouched forests stretch into the perceivable distance even though the Chernobyl nuclear power facility is about 250 miles upstream to the north fish caught from the Dnieper River are a local food staple There is something else you notice about Horishni Plavni particularly since you are an American and have a habit of blindness to such things You realize that if you had simply passed by this place and seen it through a car window you’d judge the nature of its people based upon the look of the urban infrastructure in which they live Old Soviet apartment blocks known as Khrushchyovkas are ubiquitous Many of the buildings date from the 1960s and are worn Grass grows through cracks in the sidewalks and the roads In places the roadside curbs have crumbled you think the place has been beaten by time As if modern Ukraine is squatting in the leftovers of its Soviet past A Soviet-era war memorial in a riverside park if you choose to see it or know what to look for that beauty exists in the people you see and the way they have turned the environment they inherited into a place that feels parents push strollers along a sidewalk under the canopy of blossoming chestnut trees Fresh lilac shrubs also line the roads and the courtyards between Khrushchyovkas The scent of blooming flowers fills the air There’s little asphalt in the spaces between buildings covered in trees or gardens planted by proactive citizens who took the initiative to beautify their hometown The streets are straight and arranged in ordered grids because they were planned that way You notice how empty those streets are of cars owning a car is too expensive for many people in Horishni Plavni a lot of people on bikes or simply walking There’s something pleasant about the empty streets and brimming sidewalks street lamps flicker on and light the sidewalks where families stroll Teenagers hang out in the darkened parks where they listen to pop music children ride bicycles and play in the playgrounds one of the first things you notice about Horishni Plavni is how many baby carriages you see and how many children and playgrounds there are Parents harp on their children to study hard and learn about the arts and to be respectful of religion A memorial to the Communist International Brigades children play sports and learn about the world and study all the subjects that inspire their imaginations they listen to the same music and watch the same TV shows and movies and YouTube videos and use the same social media websites as American children But you’d never know any of this unless you spent some time in Horishni Plavni and saw it all for yourself you understand that Ukraine’s future is not predetermined by Russia the debate continues in Ukraine: Is the country’s future as a sovereign country best served by remembering the Soviet past or forgetting it All vestiges of the Soviet Union must be scrubbed for Ukraine to finally achieve lasting and true independence from Moscow They say the only way to avoid repeating the past is to be reminded of it A 450-kilometer-long front line cuts like a scar across the Donbas steppe; a reminder that the past is real and not yet finished Nolan Peterson, a former special operations pilot and a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, is The Daily Signal’s foreign correspondent based in Ukraine. Send an email to Nolan Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information A field of sunflowers near Horishni Plavni 2022 at 6:49 AM EDTBookmarkSaveLock This article is for subscribers only.Ukraine’s sunflower-oil sector -- the world’s largest -- is suffering major cutbacks to plantings and exports because of the Russian invasion that means the combined output of grains and oilseed could fall to a maximum of 60 million tons compared with more than 100 million tons last season The Vbet Ukrainian Cup Directorate has approved the schedule for the First preliminary round matches of the 2024/2025 season Chernihiv (Chernihiv) vs Chaika (Petropavlivska Borshchahivka) Victoriya (Sumy) vs Metalurh (Zaporizhzhia) Hirnyk-Sport (Horishni Plavni) vs Mariupol (Mariupol) Lokomotyv (Kyiv) vs Metalist 1925 (Kharkiv) Trostianets (Trostianets) vs Poltava (Poltava) Revera 1908 (Ivano-Frankivsk) vs Podillya (Khmelnytskyi) Vilkhivtsi (Vilkhivtsi) vs Metalist (Kharkiv) Skala 1911 (Stryi) vs Epicentr (Kamianets-Podilskyi) Uzhhorod (Uzhhorod) vs Prykarpattia (Ivano-Frankivsk) Olimpiya (Savyntsi) vs Kremin (Kremenchuk) Veronika Shlendek was drawn to cooking by the “miracle” of her grandmother’s bread-baking When Veronika Shlendek was growing up in Horishni Plavni a large town on the Dnieper river in Ukraine she always dreamed of being a chef when she was older “I remember how my grandmother baked bread It was magical,” she tells The Slovak Spectator “There are three children in our family so there was constant commotion in the house Grandma used to say that bread is a holy food so there should be peace and quiet when it is being baked she would always tell us: ‘you can’t go in there It was the day I decided to become a chef,” the 30-year-old says she took temporary jobs for a while before working as a waitress in a cafe and because the manager knew she liked to cook she had become an avid follower of the Ukrainian version of the international hit cooking show MasterChef gaining inspiration for new dishes from the programme The rest of this article is premium content at Spectator.skSubscribe now for full access Immediate access to all locked articles (premium content) on Spectator.sk Special weekly news summary + an audio recording with a weekly news summary to listen to at your convenience (received on a weekly basis directly to your e-mail) PDF version of the latest issue of our newspaper Access to all premium content on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk 2019 at 3:00 AM ESTUpdated on December 27 2019 at 12:31 PM ESTBookmarkSaveLock This article is for subscribers only.If recent trends hold Kostyantin Zhevago’s run as a billionaire is at risk of coming to an end