14.5 million hryvnias is to be spent on the reconstruction of the centralised water supply system in the «Frigate» neighbourhood in Pervomaisk The relevant tender was published in the ProZorro public procurement system The contracting authority is the Housing and Communal Services Department of the Pervomaisk City Council. The project will be co-financed by the city council and the UNICEF fund The works on Korabelna Street should be completed by 31 December 2025 The project envisages the renovation of over 2000 metres of pipelines and improvement of water supply in the neighbourhood the contractor will have to dismantle the existing networks and equipment The project envisages a number of earthworks: excavation of trenches for pipelines preparation of foundations; installation of new pipelines made of polyethylene pipes with diameters ranging from 63 to 225 m; installation of shut-off valves (valves compensators); restoration of the pavement: asphalting the specialists will test and flush the networks As a reminder, Pervomaisk City Council members failed to vote to cancel the decision to increase the cost of water supply In March, the executive committee approved an increase in the cost of services provided by Pervomaisk Water Supply and Sewerage Department the tariff for water increased by 13.73 hryvnias (i.e. by 32.3%); for sewage — by 10.48 hryvnias (40.7%) centralised water supply services will cost UAH 56.23 and centralised sewerage services will cost 36.18 hryvnias The SBU's office in the Mykolaiv region reported this via Telegram "SBU counterintelligence has detained another Russian agent in the Mykolaiv region The perpetrator is a 57-year-old employee of one of the departments of the Pervomaisk City Council who was spying on defenders in the southern region," the statement reads The woman was apprehended during a meeting with her superiors and colleagues she attempted to locate new positions of Ukrainian units that had relocated from their regular bases following the full-scale invasion The SBU said that during her reconnaissance efforts and types of military equipment heading to the front line "She transmitted the gathered intelligence through a spy chatbot administered by traitor Serhii Lebedev (alias 'Lokhmatyi') The enemy 'admin' forwarded the intel to his handlers from both the FSB and the military intelligence service of the aggressor state," the report said The information was intended for use in planning new waves of Russian missile and drone strikes on the region SBU operatives acted preemptively and detained the suspect Searches at her premises uncovered computer equipment and mobile phones used in her subversive activities for the benefit of the occupiers SBU investigators have charged her under Part 2 Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (high treason committed under martial law) She is currently in custody and faces a potential life sentence with property confiscation While citing and using any materials on the Internet links to the website ukrinform.net not lower than the first paragraph are mandatory citing the translated materials of foreign media outlets is possible only if there is a link to the website ukrinform.net and the website of a foreign media outlet Materials marked as "Advertisement" or with a disclaimer reading "The material has been posted in accordance with Part 3 of Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine "On Advertising" No 1996 and the Law of Ukraine "On the Media" No 2023 and on the basis of an agreement/invoice Online media entity; Media identifier - R40-01421 In Pervomaiskyi district of Mykolaiv region 46.7 tonnes of unsuitable plant protection chemicals (PPCs) are still stored as well as 60 tonnes of contaminated soil and 19 reinforced concrete containers that previously stored unusable pesticides This was announced during a briefing by the head of the Pervomaisk District Military Administration Serhii Sakovskyi noted that 2.2 tonnes of liquid fraction is located on the territory of Pervomaisk community in the village of Pidhorodnia and 0.5 tonnes of liquid fraction is located on the lands of Syniukhyn Brid community He assured us that other concrete structures are not in danger «These chemical plant protection products have been accumulated for many years They were transferred to the appropriate category The owner has not been identified due to the fact that we know what events took place before that the relevant waste was disposed of in several stages over 45 tonnes were disposed of in 2008 and about 50 tonnes in 2011-2012» in accordance with the current legislation local state administrations are responsible for the disposal and storage of such waste on the territory of communities an inspection was carried out and barrels were found that were stored without doors in an improper condition the issue could not be resolved due to a lack of funds in local budgets «The commission's decision was to appeal to local communities but communities have limited financial resources this work should be carried out by a licensed company We do not have such a company in our region We contacted a company in the Odesa region which provided us with preliminary estimates of the cost of these works We submitted these calculations to the regional commission on technical and industrial safety and emergency response» the regional commission made a positive decision The issue was also considered by the Ecology Commission of the Mykolaiv Regional Council and sent to the session The Pervomaisk community is expecting a positive decision and hopes to receive funds for waste disposal As previously reported, during the inspection in the Pervomaisk and Syniukhin Brid communities of Mykolaiv region inspectors found warehouses with pesticides that can no longer be used The chemicals found were old plant protection products left over from the Soviet era As a reminder, in the de-occupied territories of Mykolaiv region, the soil contained high levels of heavy metals Pervomaisk has been reduced to rubble in the fighting between government troops and rebel forces, and at least half of its population has fled. Russian human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov was granted rare access to the area At the end of November, I visited this city with a colleague from Memorial, Jan Rachinsky, and a researcher from Human Rights Watch, Tanya Lokshina Some blocks of this city, situated 50 kilometres west of Luhansk, have been practically wiped off the face of the earth by Ukrainian artillery barrages The centre of Pervomaisk is made up of multi-storey blocks but most of the residential areas consist of one-storey private buildings. Before the war, 38,801 people lived here the engineering faculty of Donetsk University and a branch of the Kharkov Institute of Management Towards the end of July, Ukrainian troops approached Pervomaisk but ran into stiff resistance and could not take it. A massive artillery bombardment began that would continue into August. Most people fled, but according to the locals, several thousand peaceable citizens remained they couldn’t even leave their basements and bomb-shelters and the rebels brought them water lest they die of thirst The local authorities say that around 700 civilians died here during the shelling of July and August It is not yet possible to confirm that figure but all the people we spoke to also told us that hundreds died appointed by the armed men who control the city) has a grisly collection of photos on his computer that were taken at that time had set up camp not only on the outskirts of the city but also smack in the centre goading the Ukrainian forces into firing on Pervomaisk But that in no way justifies strikes against populated areas by multiple launch rocket systems After the Minsk agreement was signed on 5 September there was a lull [in the fighting] and those whose houses were still standing started to return home in September and October Various estimates now put the civilian population of Pervomaisk at 10,000-20,000 people They had tasted sorrow in an alien environment had run out of money and hoped to spend winter at home They started to restore what had been destroyed: evidence of repairs is visible on [the walls] of houses although they were less intense than in the summer We talked to the staff of a maternity hospital that had been hit by a bomb on 15 November with a further five bombs exploding next to the building A baby girl born two months premature was in the hospital at the time: it was a miracle that she survived the hospital was being disinfected after repairs had been carried out There [were] four pregnant women under medical supervision in the city and it appears that they will give birth here We talked to a woman living in a block of flats that was hit by shells on 18 November There were no casualties on that occasion: many of the flats are uninhabited and the people who live there managed to run to the basement when they heard the bombardment set in a ‘repair brigade’ went to [clear away the rubble] a new barrage began and one worker was killed They showed us some one-storey houses that were destroyed on 23 November by strikes from a Grad rocket launcher People crowd tightly into the bomb shelters when they are under fire [but] there were no bombardments during our visit and the huddled figures were those of permanent residents who no longer have anywhere else to live Ukrainian soldiers charge a Grad multiple rocket launcher system near the eastern Ukrainian city of Shchastya in the Luhansk region in August 2014 Russian-backed rebels are also known to use such weapons Photograph: Aleksey Chernyshev/AFP/Getty ImagesIn many blocks It will be impossible to live in them once the frosts set in But electricity and gas still flow intermittently here and there cutting out and restarting because of the barrages It is in these harsh conditions that the repair brigades somehow patch up what has been destroyed and get the electricity and heating up and running again They lack the most basic materials - slate wire and film – needed to cover up the windows even lightly damaged houses start to leak and freeze through In blocks where the boiler rooms have not been destroyed We talked to a woman who was working in the boiler room She can just about have a wash in the warm water but her parents live with her in a flat on the eighth floor: they are old and find it hard to walk down the stairs and climb back up again And so they hardly ever leave a flat in which Water doesn’t flow upwards [any more] and only comes out of a tap in the basement: the residents lug it upstairs in buckets None of the workers are receiving their wages: they work for free in the hope that they will recoup at least a part of what is owed them at some point in the future One of the local armed Cossacks told me that they “sometimes have to galvanise ambulance staff and ‘emergency situation’ workers into action by shooting at their feet” The worst thing is the acute shortage of food in Pervomaisk many people have no money left to buy anything Yevgeny Ishchenko and his comrades-in-arms – are trying to keep people alive somehow this meal makes the difference between life and death by starvation Plans are now afoot to open a further four canteens and every day free bread is distributed to old people on the street [at least] in the depots that we were shown and stocks are replenished thanks only to the help of individual Russian businessmen A volunteer pushes a cart loaded with humanitarian aid at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk in October 2014 Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty ImagesFood from the Russian humanitarian aid convoy has been brought to Pervomaisk from the Luhansk People’s Republic [only] once 10,000 food parcels were delivered to the city a kilogram of buckwheat and three cans of food a monthly food ration was earmarked in Luhansk for schools (seven are allegedly functioning hospital and ambulance staff and workers from the Ministry for Emergency Situations but the recipients had to go to Luhansk themselves to claim it Not once have building materials made it to Pervomaisk The local militia fighters who talked to us about what is going on here ground their teeth when they pronounced the words ‘Luhansk authorities’ They believe that the failure of humanitarian aid to arrive from Luhansk represents a deliberate policy to kill off the city through cold and hunger the same as other areas with Cossack self-government Stakhanov and Bryanka are under the control of armed men who proclaim themselves to be ‘Cossack units’ intent on creating ‘true people’s power’ we discovered that no [food or supplies] from this convoy found their way to Pervomaisk We appealed to the Commissioner for Human Rights and the Presidential Human Rights Council We hope that the Russian government will wield its influence and convince the LNR authorities to send some of the humanitarian aid they receive from Russia to those who need it most – the people of Pervomaisk and was translated from Russian by Cameron Johnston Pervomaisk plans to sign a cooperation agreement with UNICEF worth 12.2 million hryvnias to reconstruct the centralised water supply system in one of its neighbourhoods The relevant draft decision has been published on the website of the Pervomaisk City Council It is to be considered by the deputies at a session meeting The agreement with the international organisation is to be concluded by the Housing and Communal Services Department of the Pervomaisk City Council It is noted that the funds are intended to support internally displaced children and children in host communities to ensure access to sufficient clean drinking water and improved sanitation It is planned to spend 12 million 222 thousand 169 hryvnias on the reconstruction of the water supply system of the «Fregat» neighbourhood on Korabelna Street in Pervomaisk «This support will improve water supply services for 20,000 people and will be implemented within 12 months» The city's housing and communal services department will submit a quarterly request to transfer funding directly to the contractor The department will also prepare reports on the expenditure of money and the performance of work In March, the executive committee approved an increase in the cost of services provided by Pervomaisk Water and Sewerage Department centralised water supply services will cost 56.23 hryvnias either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content Dashcam footage from Ukraine has shown the obliteration of an ammo truck as it explodes in the contested region of Luhansk The video, shared on X (formerly Twitter) appears to show a smoking truck on the road ahead ejecting a huge fireball upward into the air the vehicle's wreckage can be seen strewn around a smoking crater Today it was reported about the big explosion in Pervomaisk, Luhansk region. 30km from the frontline. It turned out to be a Russian truck with ammunition. https://t.co/882TEtYc5C pic.twitter.com/DnZvGNWvJF The city has been a focal point in the ongoing conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists Russia has recently been making gains in eastern Ukraine mapping produced by the Institute for the Study of War (IFS) including Chasiv Yar - a key town in Donetsk However, recent reports from Ukraine's military have said that Russian forces were forced into retreat from positions in the contested Serebryansky Forest in the Luhansk region close to the Russian-controlled city of Kreminna The user who uploaded the footage claimed that it depicted a Russian truck with ammunition 30 kilometers from the frontline although Newsweek was not immediately able to verify this The powerful blast stripped nearby trees of their leaves and branches which can be seen scattered widely in the footage It is unknown at this time if any of the vehicle's occupants survived Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for more information Some social media users have attempted to analyze the video with one user commenting: "the size of that explosion coupled with the vehicle essentially being vaporized does suggest it was transporting ordinance." Russian President Vladimir Putin recently visited North Korea amidst the ongoing war in Ukraine Russian media reported that Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would sign a "comprehensive strategic partnership" treaty addressing security matters Kim has pledged his "full support" for Russia's invasion of its Eastern European neighbor This comes as Ukraine's military on Thursday reported that Russia has lost almost 8,000 (7,987) tanks since it began its full-scale invasion in February 2022 with three lost in the last 24 hours of fighting alone Russia has also recently admitted that Ukraine successfully shot down a Russian A-50 surveillance aircraft over the sea of Azov Do you have any questions about the Russia-Ukraine war Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsweek is committed to journalism that's factual and fair Hold us accountable and submit your rating of this article on the meter. Newsletters in your inbox See all The following resolution was adopted by a meeting of the Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee (UK) on Sunday May 12 It calls for the release of Ukrainian Trotskyist Bogdan Syrotiuk an opponent of NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine who was jailed by the Zelensky regime on April 25 The World Socialist Web Site and the International Committee of the Fourth International have launched a global campaign demanding Syrotiuk’s freedom. Sign the online petition here The Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee calls on Royal Mail workers to urgently support the global campaign to demand the release of Bogdan Syrotiuk from a Ukrainian prison Bogdan is a political prisoner who has been targeted as a socialist opponent of the Zelensky regime and NATO’s proxy war against Russia He was arrested by the secret police—the Security Service of Ukraine—on April 25 in his hometown of Pervomaisk in southern Ukraine Bogdan is an opponent of the bloody war waged by the regimes in Kiev and Moscow that has already claimed more than half a million lives He has advocated for the unity of the Russian and Ukrainian working class Bogdan is being held prisoner on trumped-up charges of undermining the territorial integrity of Ukraine and serving the interests of Russia His life is in immediate danger in a prison system where torture and abuse are rife The Ukrainian regime’s frame-up of Bogdan as a supporter of the Putin regime and its invasion of Ukraine is an absurd lie He is a leading member of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists (YGBL) a Trotskyist youth organisation active in Ukraine and throughout the rest of the former Soviet Union The YGBL opposes the Russian invasion and the NATO proxy war This is based on the principles of class unity against the governments and oligarchs in both countries What the Zelensky regime fears is not a “Putin agent” but the development of mass political opposition from the left among Ukrainian workers and youth who refuse to be used as cannon fodder in a fratricidal war Defending Bogdan means challenging the endless pro-war propaganda by the British media that the NATO-backed conflict against Russia is being waged to defend democracy and human rights Ukraine is a police state under martial law with all opposition parties banned The proxy war for imperialist interests to conquer Russia is being waged down to the last Ukrainian Conservative Foreign Minister David Cameron stated in a recent trip to the US: “I argue that it is extremely good value for money for the United States and for others Perhaps for about five or 10 percent of your defence budget almost half of Russia’s pre-war military equipment has been destroyed without the loss of a single American life.” Hundreds of billions of pounds are being funnelled into the military while the National Health Service and social programmes are starved of funds Austerity is being enforced by capitalist governments across the world to implement a war economy Israel and Ukraine are proxy states backed by their imperialist sponsors in Washington and London which have embarked on a new redivision of the world to seize control of energy supplies War abroad means a war against the working class at home The Zelensky regime’s dictatorial measures are being replicated in NATO countries peaceful student protests over Gaza are facing a martial law-style crackdown with riot police launched onto university campuses to carry out mass arrests Hundreds of Jewish people have been arrested and detained for protesting the Gaza genocide exposing the crude smear that opposition to Zionism equals anti-Semitism The real sponsors of anti-Semitism are the imperialist powers themselves Berlin and London have armed and backed the Zelensky regime in Ukraine which officially honours Stepan Bandera The fight for Bogdan’s freedom is inseparable from the struggle against austerity We support the call made by the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) for the working class to oppose the state crackdown on university protests in the US Britain and internationally against Israel’s genocide in Gaza The courageous stand of students and faculty members must be defended against the frontal assault unleashed on the right to protest and freedom of speech The police-state methods used today against students will be used tomorrow against every form of protest and strike action by the working class The threat of World War III is more urgent than many working people realise State repression and censorship is being used to silence anti-war sentiment and conceal the preparations for direct military confrontation against Russia and China which includes war gaming the use of nuclear weapons The leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer is fully complicit in these plans and declares openly his readiness to press the nuclear button The working class confronts a joint party of austerity and war We support the call issued by the International Committee of the Fourth International and the World Socialist Web Site for the immediate release of Bogdan Syrotiuk and for the development of an international anti-war movement uniting workers globally the most powerful social force on earth which creates all wealth through its labor must leverage that power to force an end to genocide and war.” We urge postal workers to sign the online petition bring this campaign to the attention of your co-workers and pass resolutions demanding freedom for Bogdan Syrotiuk Fill out the form to be contacted by someone from the WSWS in your area about getting involved reported on his work in 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 he named the reform of the healthcare sector — it was possible not only to save hospitals but also to improve their funding This became known on 1 May during a session of the Mykolaiv Regional Council held in Pervomaisk the regional council held 9 sessions and adopted 126 decisions The commission on housing and communal services was the most active the region began to form a capable network of medical institutions they carefully analysed the finances of both regional and city medical institutions and studied the experience of the Dnipro region a working group was set up with the participation of doctors we worked with the financial indicators of not only regional institutions but also city institutions in Mykolaiv to understand the global picture Together with the chairman of the commission and the specialised deputy we learned from the experience of Dnipropetrovsk region because they managed to approve the hospital network before the war and are now operating in a hospital network with a full-fledged district We set up a working group to study the issues of financial support for the CCN which included experts from the healthcare department the financial sector and members of the regional council,» said Anton Tabunschyk Four institutions were merged into the regional clinical hospital skin and venereological and rehabilitation hospitals The institution received 29 service packages from the NHSU worth 314 million hryvnias Over 242,000 outpatients and almost 21,000 inpatients were treated during the year ThePhthisiopulmonology Centre merged with the Palliative Care and Infectious Diseases Centres 9 packages were concluded with the NHSU for a total of 44.7 million hryvnias The staffing capacity is 44 doctors and 98 nurses 11,984 patients were treated on an outpatient basis and 1,624 patients were treated in the hospital The regional children's hospital was joined by a children's home The hospital has concluded 13 packages with the NHSU for 124 million hryvnias more than 52,000 outpatients have been treated there «All the merged institutions have retained their medical staff and the scope of medical services Today we have powerful multidisciplinary medical facilities with the prospect of further development,» said Anton Tabunschyk equipment was purchased and repairs were carried out for more than 227 million hryvnias the regional hospital received 56 million hryvnias and the oncology centre received almost 81 million hryvnias for equipment a renovated rehabilitation unit was opened with the support of Project HOPE; 50 medical institutions received 10 tonnes of medicines from French donors; 11 lung ventilators were donated by Italian partners and the Ukrainian diaspora The municipal enterprise «Pharmacy» reopened 18 pharmacy outlets in 2024 and 5 more in the first quarter of 2025 Now 65% of the region's communities are covered by the pharmacy network the company has been operating at a profit net operating profit amounted to 352 thousand hryvnias «We have increased our turnover 10 times compared to 2023 We have also resumed the production of medicines to order at the inter-hospital pharmacy №110 which is capable of producing up to 12,000 medicines «The company participates in the government programme «Affordable Medicines» — the share of the programme is 10% of the total 36 contracts have been concluded and medicines worth 3.5 million hryvnias have been sold and preferential prescriptions are issued in 21 communities,» added Anton Tabunschyk At the expense of the state subvention and local budgets communities received 26 school buses worth 43 million hryvnias There are 17 educational institutions in the region with 3,270 children enrolled including more than 1,200 from privileged categories The deputies also changed the type and name of Mykolaiv General Education Sanatorium Boarding School №7 and merged Ochakiv General Education Sanatorium Boarding School with Mykolaiv Regional Academic Lyceum «Renaissance» 430 families received over 10 million hryvnias in aid Most of them are people with cancer and difficult life circumstances An advisory council has been set up for veterans under the chairman of the regional council and they receive medical and psychological assistance The Coordination Headquarters for Prisoners of War held 67 meetings and provided 7,400 consultations Ensuring the public interest in the operation of the electricity market From December 2024 to March 2025 27 applications were processed for a preferential tariff and 322 apartment buildings received a preferential tariff 322 apartment buildings received a reduced electricity tariff upon application Agrarians in the region received 113 modular granaries with a total capacity of 50,000 tonnes The official also focused on the regional budget revenues rent revenues amounted to 5.3 million hryvnias and in the first quarter of 2025 — another 2.3 million hryvnias 20 real estate lease auctions were successfully held 186 grant applications have been submitted Tabunschyk stressed that all these projects are being implemented at the expense of foreign partners As part of cooperation with international donors special equipment for municipal institutions: dump trucks As for the support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine including 1,000 FPV drones for the 123rd separate brigade the regional council members approved Anton Tabunschyk's report On Thursday, 1 May, the deputies of the Mykolaiv Regional Council gathered for an in-person session in Pervomaisk to approve the heads of five cultural and sports institutions the Office of Territorial Community Restoration and Development was opened in Pervomaisk This became possible thanks to the cooperation of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration together with the UN Development Program in Ukraine and with the financial support of the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark This was reported in the Mykolaiv RMA The opening ceremony was attended by the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration Vitalii Kim the head of the Office of the Royal Danish Embassy in Mykolaiv Jacob Hansen the head of the cooperation department of the Royal Danish Embassy Torben Larsen the program analyst of the UNDP in Ukraine Anna Biliavska and the Mayor of Pervomaisk Oleh Demchenko Vitalii Kim emphasized the importance of creating such Recovery and Development Offices for communities and thanked all international partners for their support in the reconstruction of the front-line Mykolaiv region we launched the Office of Regional Development and Reconstruction at RMA Then they spread this practice to communities Pervomaisk is already the third platform for cooperation between communities the public sector and international partners This is a great opportunity to directly contact international partners and attract as many investments as possible in reconstruction «I am grateful to the Kingdom of Denmark and UNDP for their support,» said the head of the regional military administration familiarized the audience with the presentation of the Integrated Approach to Local Recovery and Development as well as the vision of the Office's activities we are implementing a project on the development of the Community Development Strategy as well as providing methodological and consulting support and expert support for the training of representatives of local self-government bodies our specialists acquired the skills of assessing the capacity for the process of recovery and development And this is a positive moment in further project work on the ground the opportunity to qualitatively determine priority directions for attracting international donors with further implementation of cases,» Oleh Demchenko emphasized Representatives of the Kingdom of Denmark noted that such synergy will allow scaling up future projects «It is very important for us to have specialists in their field and reliable partners from the communities with whom we would carry out joint projects,» said Jakob Hansen The opening of the Office for the Development and Reconstruction of the Pervomaisk community was also attended by the head of the district military administration the freelance adviser to the first deputy head of the regional military administration the director of the Regional Reconstruction Agency of the Mykolaiv region and the specialist in attracting investments The Pervomaisk City Council plans to approve the Development Strategy of the Pervomaisk Territorial Community until 2027 The corresponding draft decision was published on the website of the city council It should be noted that experts from the United Nations Program for Reconstruction and Peacebuilding helped develop the development strategy for the Pervomaisk community it includes 150 project ideas for which the community needs 6.7 billion hryvnias Areas and projects that require the greatest costs: according to the text of the draft decision of the city council the structural divisions of the executive committee of the city council institutions and community organizations of all forms of ownership are obliged to take into account the main provisions of the Strategy when developing the budget programs of economic and social development of the community and local programs We will remind you that the project for the construction of a residential complex for internally displaced persons in Pervomaisk, developed by the Department of Architecture in 2022 envisages the construction of 26 residential buildings with 1,703 apartments for displaced persons It includes all accessibility measures for the reduced mobility population and shelter in every house none of the investors and international partners showed a desire to finance the construction of such a residential neighborhood We will remind that in April of this year in Mykolaiv, the work on the development of the City Development Strategy until 2027 was completed, which was worked on for almost 10 months by specialists of the city council representatives of the public and scientific institutions including those involved from international organizations and companies — UNDP NikVesti decided to study in detail the document, which contains a list of projects and measures for the development of the city, as well as to find out the opinions of deputies regarding the developed Strategy. Read the article NikVesti «Paving tiles, bridge repair and new shelters. What is in the development strategy of Mykolaiv for the next 4 years» they plan to restore the «Dzvinochok» kindergarten which was damaged as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation The total cost of the project is 16.1 million hryvnias Such data are published in the DREAM digital system The project involves the implementation of a number of construction and restoration works Construction works will cost 11.17 million hryvnias and about 5 million hryvnias need to be allocated for furniture Already during the Great War, the recovery process began in Mykolaiv: repair of shelters and Denmark decided to take over the process However, there is an opinion that «war cancels recovery» Is this really the case and how does Mykolaiv treat this process we talked to six different representatives of Mykolaiv: from opinion leaders to those who are directly engaged in restoration Read about the attitude, vision and expectations of Mykolaiv residents in the material NikVesti Mayors of cities in Mykolaiv region have published their declarations for 2024 NikVesti analysed the declarations of the mayors of eight cities: Pervomaisk and the head of the Snihurivka City Military Administration Pervomaisk mayor Oleh Demchenko receives the highest salary and Snihurivka mayor Ivan Kukhta earns the lowest salary Read more about the declarations of city mayors in the article NikVesti In his 2024 declaration, Pervomaisk Mayor Oleh Demchenko indicated that he owns only a 36.2 square metre apartment in Pervomaisk All other real estate is owned by his wife Iryna She owns real estate in Kharkiv: one 91.2 square metre apartment and another in joint ownership His wife owns 18 land plots in Mykolaiv region She owns 25% each of a 1,285.3 square metre shop and a 1,552 square metre land plot The mayor's wife also leases non-residential premises of 53.5 square metres and 21 square metres of land in Pervomaisk and another 210.3 square metres of land in 2024 The couple also use a land plot and a 210.7-square-metre house in Pervomaisk The mayor of Pervomaisk also declared that he owns a car «Volga» and his wife owns a PORSCHE CAYENNE made in 2013 which she bought in 2019 for UAH 400 thousand Oleh Demchenko received ₴1.3 million in salary as mayor of Pervomaisk And his wife received ₴556 thousand from renting out property the couple sold a 36.2 square metre apartment in Pervomaisk and a NISSAN X-TRAIL car The mayor declared ₴90.8 thousand from the sale of the property The mayor of Pervomaisk keeps 100 thousand hryvnias and 10 thousand dollars in cash while his wife keeps 300 thousand hryvnias the mayor's wife took out a ₴5 million loan The couple also have over ₴300,000 and $2.3,000 in their bank accounts Voznesensk Mayor Yevhen Velychko indicated in his declaration that he owns a 56.8 square metre apartment in Voznesensk and a 20,000 square metre plot of land in the village of Akmechetski Stavky His wife Anna owns 25% of an apartment in Voznesensk with a total area of 66 square metres live in a 137.7-square-metre house in Voznesensk owned by Alla Velychko Yevhen Velychko also owns five trucks and a 2012 FIAT DOBLO car the mayor sold his 2010 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT CC for ₴400,000 which she bought the same year for ₴1.1 million Yevhen Velychko received ₴687,700 in salary as mayor of Voznesensk His wife Hanna received ₴6,800 in social benefits The mayor of Voznesensk keeps 267,700 hryvnias and 7,000 euros in cash Yevhen Velychko also declared that he and his wife have $78,200 in cash The mayor of Pivdenoukrainsk, Valerii Onufriienko which he purchased in 2021 for ₴1.1 million In the first 9 months of 2024, the mayor received ₴583,000 in salary, which is an average of UAH 64,800 per month. After his resignation, Valerii Onufriienko was reinstated as mayor by a court decision in April 2024 the mayor's wife received UAH 134,600 in pension and Valerii Onufriienko himself received UAH 219,000 And their daughter received ₴804,700 in salary from the state-owned enterprise «NNEGC «Energoatom» The mayor of Bashtanka, Oleksandr Berehovyi declared two houses in Bashtanka with a total area of 114.6 square metres He also owns two non-residential premises there Oleksandr Berehovyi has also been renting a non-residential premises with an area of 100 square metres he has owned another 1,000 square metres of land in Bashtanka his wife Yelyzaveta has owned a 44-square-metre apartment in Mykolaiv and two non-residential premises in Mykolaiv with a total area of 70.3 square metres She also owns another non-residential property of 251.84 square metres and a 23.4 square metre garage in Bashtanka The mayor's wife also owns a non-residential property in the village of Pyatikhatky The wife of the mayor of Bashtanka owns three plots of land in Bashtanka and the village of Mykhailivka Their total area is 92.3 thousand square metres She also leases a 366 square metre plot of land in Bashtanka Oleksandr Berehovyi declared three cars owned by his wife Yelyzaveta which she purchased in 2018 for ₴193.1 thousand; a 2021 SKODA KODIAQ which she purchased in 2021 for over ₴1 million; and a 2023 SKODA KAMIQ which she purchased in 2023 for ₴941.1 thousand The mayor of Bashtanka has had a car trailer since 2008 Oleksandr Berehovyi received ₴854 thousand in salary as mayor of Bashtanka which is an average of ₴71.1 thousand per month He also received a gift of 179 thousand hryvnias from his wife His wife received ₴2.9 million in income from business activities and ₴35.4 thousand from renting property The mayor of Bashtanka keeps 140 thousand hryvnias in cash while his wife keeps 25 thousand dollars and 1.5 million hryvnias The mayor of Novyi Buh, Maksym Lahodiienko declared a 122-square-metre house and a 36-square-metre apartment in Novyi Buh He also owns three plots of land in Novyi Buh Maksym Lahodiienko has another land plot in the village of Pokazne And his wife owns two plots of land in Novyi Buh Maksym Lahodienko received ₴965.1 thousand in salary as mayor of Novyi Buh which is an average of ₴80.4 thousand per month He received another ₴27.5 thousand for «independent professional activity» from the Department of Education Youth and Sports of the Executive Committee of the Novi Buh City Council His wife Victoria received 195,300 hryvnias in salary from a private rental company «Victoriia» The head of the Snihurivka local military administration, Ivan Kukhta The total value of the spouses' land plots as of the date of acquisition of the right was ₴363,300 Ivan Kukhta's wife owns a 66.8 square metre apartment in Mykolaiv and a 1.1 hectare land plot in the village of Rybakivka Yevheniia Onyshchenko also jointly owns a 230-square-metre office with Yurii Chichkov and a 240-square-metre plot of land in Bashtanka Ivan Kukhta owns three cars: Volkswagen transporter made in 2006 He also owns a 1996 Mercedes-Benz 609 D bus His wife Yevheniia Onyshchenko owns an Opel Insignia made in 2013 The declaration states that Ivan Kukhta's wife owns the company «Kiv-trans» with a registered capital of 100 thousand hryvnias The company's main business activity is wholesale trade in grain Ivan Kukhta received UAH 279.1 thousand in salary as the head of Snihurivka DMA which is an average of ₴23.2 thousand per month He received another 24 thousand hryvnias of income from the company «Kiv-Trans» and 1200 hryvnias of income from the company «Yug-Tir-Service» His wife received ₴20,600 in social benefits The couple have no registered bank accounts The mayor of Nova Odesa, Oleksandr Polyakov declared a 69.6 square metre residential building in Nova Odesa and a 508 square metre land plot His wife Victoria owns a 20,000 square metre plot of land in the village of Novoshmydtivka Oleksandr Polyakov earned ₴898,300 in salary as mayor His wife received ₴88.2 thousand in salary from the Department for Interaction with Local Self-Government Bodies of the Mykolaiv District State Administration She received another ₴16.3 thousand in part-time salary from the Charitable Organisation «Charitable Foundation «Adventist Agency for Relief and Development in Ukraine» but the amount of money kept on them is not specified The income declaration of the mayor of Ochakiv, Serhii Bychkov, is still classified by the National Agency for the Corruption Prevention. However, after checking the mayor's declarations for 2021 and 2022, the National Agency reported that Serhii Bychkov purchased an apartment in Spain worth more than ₴5 million and received ₴12 million as a gift from his mother The NACP said that the inspections revealed signs of illicit enrichment and declaration of false information worth more than ₴3 million He also allegedly received gifts in cash from his mother worth over ₴12 million these funds exceed the woman's legal income which since 1998 has amounted to only more than 580,000 hryvnias «The income of the mayor of Ochakiv and his wife from confirmed sources also did not allow them to purchase an apartment in Spain at their own expense noted an increase in monetary assets by ₴2 million in the reporting period the legality of the sources of which was not confirmed during the inspection» And also, what is stated in the declarations of the heads of district state administrations in Mykolaiv region and heads of district administrations in Mykolaiv Implemented with the support of the Association of Independent Regional Publishers of Ukraine and Amediastiftelsen as part of the Regional Media Support Hub project The views expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the official position of the partners the Russian army launched rocket attacks on Bashtanka district and at around 21:50 p.m A hangar with agricultural machinery was damaged in the Pervomaisk community In Mykolaiv district, an FPV drone attacked the Kutsurub community on 18 April at 07:05, the Mykolaiv regional military administration reported On the same day and in the morning of 19 April five attacks by FPV drones were recorded in Ochakiv The attacks damaged the roof of a private house a car and smashed windows in a high-rise building the air defence forces shot down two «Shahed 131/136» over Mykolaiv region On 17 April, Russian troops also attacked Mykolaiv with an attack drone. As a result of the attack, the warehouses of a private company where household goods were stored caught fire. According to firefighters due to the large amount of flammable materials the fire spread quickly and covered an area of about 700 square metres The Kalinina farm collective near Pervomaisk was busy with seasonal workers loading sacks of cabbages or gathering up carrots in the big muddy fields but it’s a result of almost three years hard struggle to adapt to new conditions after vital water supplies from the Ukraine mainland stopped in 2014 “Now we have to lay out these maggots,” said farmer Vladimir Vasilievich kicking a huge roll of plastic piping which snakes all over his carrot fields providing a drip irrigation system which has to be replaced every two seasons.     Pervomaisk Administration Head of Agriculture Vladimir Mironyuk indicated an adjacent field green with a crop of winter grain Farmers have switched to these less profitable crops because they can use natural winter moisture “But if we had Dnipro water,” he said resignedly “the crop yield would be twice as high.”         With an average annual rainfall of just 330-350mm Pervomaisk district is entirely dependent on boreholes for drinking water and on irrigation for agriculture with water from the Dnipro river flowing through Ukraine and supplied via the Northern Crimean Canal 15,000 hectares were ready or planted for cultivation providing work and income for the vast majority of inhabitants of this flat In late April Ukraine abruptly dammed Dnipro water after Russia annexed the peninsula “It was a really big shock,” said Mironyuk The Russian government covered some of those losses so that the district’s agricultural sector was not completely devastated there is no sign of a solution to restore or replace the water supply and it’s clear that lack of water is a slow-motion disaster Now the only water source for farming is the same limited groundwater which provides the region’s entire drinking water supply (and which is actually gastronomically The amount that can be used for farming is strictly controlled by ecologists from the Crimean Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources who will assess the limits every three years “It’s all within a rational framework so as not to cause an ecological catastrophe because what will we drink in Pervomaisk region tomorrow if we use all the groundwater for tomatoes?” said Mironyuk No one in Pervomaisk was keen to speculate on the record about the effect agricultural use may have on overall groundwater levels “If they give us permission to drill boreholes then that means it’s alright,” said Vladimir Voytyuk responsible for production and cultivation in Pervomaisk administration “They’re the ones responsible for the ecology of the region.” The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources had not responded to requests for interview by the time of going to press.    So far nine new 100 metre boreholes for crop and livestock farming have been drilled in Pervomaisk district It is an expensive and time-consuming process: the current cost for getting all permissions and hiring a government firm to drill is around 1,000,300 roubles (over 15,000 US dollars) according to Mironyuk – and that does not include the further outlay on equipment to transport water to crops The Russian or Crimean government offers no subsidies or compensation “Now all the costs for water – from drilling and permissions to the electricity needed to bring it to the fields – lies on the shoulders of farmers,” said Mironyuk The additional cost is reflected in prices for Crimean vegetables making them less competitive on the Crimean and Russian markets – the only possible outlet since annexation           and lots have dropped out and left,” said Mironyuk there were more sellers than buyers at the small local market in nearby Alexeyevka Three traders there said they had made their living from farming before 2014 Now they were selling Turkish and Polish clothing brought from Russia and potatoes from Belarus for 20 roubles a kilo – more than twice the price as in neighbouring Kherson region in Ukraine.  Lots of friends have moved to Kherson because it is not possible to work here,” said Lenur Ismailov who used grow potatoes to sell through the winter on 15 rented hectares “And the prices of vegetables – we might as well be watering them with mineral water.” Now he and his wife sell clothes to make a living; at first they brought them from Odessa but since Ukraine imposed a trade blockade they bring them from Russia in tiresome and costly journeys over the Kerch straits Ismailov’s son was called up to the Russian army in November It’s really hard – write that down: really hard,” he said Two men selling Belarusian potatoes declined to give their surnames or name the agribusiness where they used to work which imported European seed and technology and sold frozen fruit and vegetables to Kyiv “It was Ukrainian so I won’t name it,” said Rustem Now the company has re-registered under Russia switched to less labour- and water-intensive crops “That’s how they exist now – they don’t like it but of course they don’t say so,” said Rustem who also used to grow potatoes on his own seven hectares to sell Ruins of collective farm buildings lie everywhere in this region’s flat landscape The huge lorries Vladimir Mironyuk remembers from his childhood lining up to take tons of apples from local orchards to Belarus Under Mikhail Gorbachev’s 1980s anti-alcohol campaign vineyards and orchards were ploughed up as wine and cider plants closed or else were abandoned in the dreadful years of the 1990s when collective farm workers were paid in grain and vegetables and stealing a cow or pig was often the only way to survive Life gradually improved after the collective farms were broken up and workers received land plots which they could rent out for farming to enterprises like the Kalinina farming collective but rice and vegetable fields took their place Post-Soviet farmers in Crimea had no need to economise on water; Dnipro water was unlimited in practice and cheap for both big farms and individuals cultivating a few hectares.  Now rice farming has been abandoned and vegetable crops much reduced One trickle-down from today’s water shortages is that some landplot owners are no longer being paid by lease-holders unable to farm the land or are being paid in the winter grain crops farmers are now planting because they are not water-intensive must be re-registered under Russian law when they run out – an additional headache for farmers who also need to get new documents for land use which were not required under Ukraine Only after all these papers are ready can farmers get any government subsidies The Kalinina farm managed in 2014 to scrape funds together (with no operational banks after annexation it was impossible to get a loan) to drill a borehole before all the extensive documentation was required and costs were lower even the new borehole does not supply enough water The collective is still trying to get documents together so it can apply for a subsidy for the drip irrigation system it has laid – a more economical system providing water directly to roots of crops but which has to be replaced after one or two growing seasons at yet more expense in both time and money The collective is still earning out the outlay on the borehole This season the 450-hectare farm is growing 180 hectares of grain and animal feed “We’d be happy to take more water and cultivate a bigger area but there are limits and you can’t do anything about that,” said farmer Vladimir Vasilievich The vegetables will be frozen and sent to Russia “It was hard to get into the Russian market,” Vladimir admitted But watching his harvest of carrots and cabbages being brought in this becoming part of a new state… It is a bit hard But it’s already easier now than the first year “Can you help us?” asked Mironyuk’s deputy Antonina Oltyanova after nevertheless insisting that there is no crisis and farmers have been able to adapt successfully to new conditions Crimean media has stopped covering their troubles since after two years the situation had not changed If it worked out that your information was published and people read it and helped the only positive influence has been unusually high rainfall which saved Pervomaisk’s harvests in 2015 and 2016 Crimean authorities have suggested the higher rainfall is an environmental result of the North Crimean Canal’s closure But neither climate miracles nor boreholes are likely to save this region Infrastructural problems have compounded water shortages – livestock farming for example has suffered because hay and silage can no longer be grown locally and the expense of bringing it from Russia is prohibitive Last year an outbreak of swine flu devastated the industry even further Mironyuk and Oltyanova long for a renewed agreement with Ukraine to restore water But it is out of the hands of local people most of whom have lived and worked on the land here for decades It’s for the government to decide,” said Mironyuk To get the canal network going and grow even those vegetable we grew before – if they gave us water it’d be possible to take all our produce to the Russian mainland and the whole amount would be gobbled up entirely – except maybe Krasnodar region wouldn’t allow it,” he added worriedly “they’re also serious agricultural producers…” This story is part of the Objective Investigative Reporting Project a MYMEDIA project supported by the Danish government The story can be republished freely with credits Lily Hyde is a British writer who has been living in and travelling around Eastern Europe the former Soviet Union and the far east for over fifteen years she covers Ukraine affairs for international media including The Guardian Lily also works as a consultant in public health and human rights The consequences of Russia’s invasion are visible not only in Ukraine The Kremlin has set off or exploited a series of crises that face most European countries New thinking is needed in policies towards Russia in whatever form it will take after the war Ukraine’s suffering goes well beyond the front line With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine we now see our western values under siege whether we consciously recognise it or not The invasion by Russian forces of Ukraine from the north south and east – with the initial aim to take the capital Kyiv – has changed our region The situation with Russian threats towards Ukraine once again illustrates the high level of instability in our region Only a year ago we witnessed the second Nagorno-Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan It took at least 5,000 lives and significantly shifted the geopolitics in the South Caucuses This special issue aims to honour the plight of Belarusians whose democratic choice made in August 2020 was shamelessly snubbed by Alyaksandr Lukashenka a lot of work still remains for this country And this is why Ukraine’s story is incomplete 30 years after the fall of the Soviet Union Our societies are more polarised than ever before which makes them more susceptible to disinformation The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed limitations and weaknesses in nearly all countries around the world volatility and the relationship between Russia and the West The Black Sea region is quickly becoming a geopolitical battleground which is gaining the interest of major powers regional players and smaller countries – and the stakes are only getting higher This issue is dedicated to the 10 year anniversary of the European Union’s Eastern Partnership as well as the 30 years since the 1989 revolutions in Central Europe The consequences of the emerging multipolar world This issue takes a special look at the role and responsibility of the public intellectual in Central and Eastern Europe today In the eastern parts of the European continent 1918 is remembered not only as the end of the First World War but also saw the emergence of newly-independent states and the rise of geopolitical struggles which are felt until this day that Belarus remains isolated from the West and very static in its transformation The Summer 2018 issue of New Eastern Europe tackles the complexity of para-states in the post-Soviet space Bogdan Syrotiuk—a socialist opponent of the fascistic Zelensky regime and the NATO-instigated Ukraine-Russia war—was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine in his hometown of Pervomaisk in southern Ukraine is being held in a prison in Nikolaev under atrocious conditions on fraudulent charges of undermining the territorial integrity of Ukraine and serving the interests of Russia If found guilty by a kangaroo court of these charges Bogdan is threatened with a prison sentence of 15 years to life which is the equivalent of a death sentence The arrest of Bogdan is the latest example of the Zelensky regime’s brutal repression of left-wing movements whose opposition to the war is finding a growing response within the Ukrainian working class SBU agents ransacked Bogdan’s apartment and the office that he has used to conduct political and educational activities The World Socialist Web Site has been informed that the SBU is claiming that it found a Russian military coat a backpack with the letter “Z”—a symbol associated with Russian military chauvinism—and a gas mask in the office Only dull-witted fascist police will expect people to believe that such items will be found in an office that prominently displays a photo of Leon Trotsky and offers a wide selection of Marxist-Trotskyist literature If such items were “found” in Bogdan’s office it is because they were planted there by the SBU whose unscrupulous and Gestapo-like methods are common knowledge in Ukraine Attempts to portray Bogdan as a supporter of the Putin regime and its invasion of Ukraine are politically preposterous Comrade Syrotiuk is a leading member of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists (YGBL) a Trotskyist youth organization active in Ukraine and throughout the former Soviet Union In political solidarity with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) the YGBL opposes the oligarchic capitalist governments in both Ukraine and Russia In numerous articles posted on the World Socialist Web Site and in speeches delivered at events sponsored by the ICFI Bogdan has unequivocally condemned the war and called for the unity of the Ukrainian and Russian working class against the reactionary national-chauvinist regimes headquartered in Kiev and Moscow His comrades in Russia unequivocally oppose the capitalist restorationist regime of Putin and its delusional glorification of neo-tsarist Russian nationalism In a speech written three days before his arrest which he planned to deliver at the International Committee’s upcoming celebration of May Day On the day of international solidarity of the working class members of the Ukrainian branch of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists and the entire YGBL call for the unification of the Ukrainian and Russian proletariat with the proletariat in the imperialist countries to end this war part of a pattern of brutal repressive measures by the Zelensky regime against opponents of the war and the entire working class exposes the lying claim that the US-NATO war against Russia is being waged in defense of democracy Its population is subjected to martial law Elections have been cancelled and Zelensky rules as a dictator subject only to the dictates of his NATO sponsors the financial interests of the billionaire oligarchs and the neo-Nazi gangs upon whom he relies to intimidate the Ukrainian people the US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy and Labor acknowledges in its latest report the Ukrainian regime’s brutally repressive character Among the grave “human rights issues” cited by the report are: or degrading treatment or punishment; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; restrictions on freedom of expression including violence or threats of violence against journalists unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists and censorship; serious restrictions on internet freedom; substantial interference with the freedoms of peaceful assembly and association; restrictions on freedom of movement; serious government corruption; extensive gender-based violence; systematic restrictions on workers’ freedom of association; and the existence of the worst forms of child labor Some of these human rights issues stemmed from martial law which continued to curtail democratic freedoms Under these conditions of vicious repression the life of Bogdan Syrotiuk is in immediate danger the inmates are subject to the violent regime instituted by an administration saturated with Ukrainian fascists The State Department report further states: Although the constitution and law prohibited torture and other cruel and unusual punishment there were reports law enforcement authorities engaged in such abuse courts could not legally use confessions and statements made under duress to police by persons in custody as evidence in court proceedings but the institution of martial law since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion permitted this given the attempt of the SBU to frame up Bogdan as an agent of the Russian military There were reports law enforcement and military officials abused and tortured persons in custody to obtain confessions usually related to alleged collaboration with Russia which is responsible for these atrocities is being showered with billions of dollars and armed with the most advanced weaponry by the United States and its NATO allies The arrest of Bogdan occurred just as the US Congress voted to allocate another $60 billion to a war that has already cost the lives of approximately 500,000 Ukrainian soldiers The Biden administration and its counterparts in London Rome and the other capitals involved in the direction of the proxy war are no less responsible for the fate of Bogdan Syrotiuk than their agents in Kiev The working class and youth throughout the world are justly outraged by the criminal war being waged by Israel with the support of the Biden administration and NATO But it must be understood that the same governments that are collaborating in the Gaza genocide are sponsoring the proxy war in Ukraine The violence in Gaza and Ukraine are interconnected fronts in a global escalation of military conflicts that threaten humanity with a nuclear catastrophe The fight for Bogdan’s freedom and for an end to the proxy war must be seen as an essential component of the struggle against imperialism The International Committee of the Fourth International and the World Socialist Web Site call for a global campaign to demand the immediate release of Bogdan Syrotiuk The international working class and student youth throughout the world must be informed of the seizure of Bogdan and mobilized in his defense IRU and its members are continuing to monitor these borders and other impacts of the conflict on road transport This is an online service for IRU members with real-time country information on road traffic blockades and roadworks affecting commercial road transport Be part of a close networked community of key decision-makers including mobility and logistics operators We’re always keen to hear from our members Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article Pervomaysk, mining town, eastern Ukraine, on the Donets Coal Basin The town was established by 1765 and grew with the development of mining there after 1872 Pervomaysk has been the site of electrical-engineering and light industries Для работы данного механизма требуется разрешить исполнение JavaScript-ов в вашем браузере Developped with financial aidof the Transition project Pervomaysk, city, southern Ukraine, at the confluence of the Synyukha (Sinyukha) and Southern Buh rivers The city was established in 1919 by the merging of three settlements—Olviopil and Bohopil—founded during the 15th–18th century by Lithuanians Blahodatne is a small village in the Pervomaisk community in Mykolaiv Oblast At the beginning of the full-scale invasion it became a transit point for the Russian invaders trying to take Mykolaiv and was located in the so-called gray zone the residents of Blahodatne observed columns of military equipment moving toward the regional center the Russians set up a checkpoint on the bridge over the Ingul Canal on the outskirts of the village and began to "visit" the locals the "arrivals" in Blahodatne began: the Ukrainian military maneuvered and tried to push the Russians away from Mykolaiv there were more than a thousand people in the village-three times as many as before the war because then the urban residents believed that it was safer in the village Not a single intact building remained in Blahodatne: about 180 housing units after the de-occupation of Kherson and the retreat of the invaders across the Dnipro people began to return to their destroyed homes They dismantle the rubble and remove unexploded ordnance from the wreckage with their own hands People have begun to build a new life on the wreckage of their old lives Ukrinform correspondents visited the destroyed village and learned from the locals what it was like to lose everything and risk their own lives to build a future from scratch The guy was born and lived in Blahodatne before the full-scale invasion When Blahodatne was reopened to the public in late November 2022 he was one of the first to return to the village to help the animals that remained there The road to Blahodatne goes through the neighboring village of Partyzanske They wanted to allocate a plot of land here and build temporary houses for the residents of Blahodatne the proposed land plot was a pig farm in Soviet times so the soil had accumulated a lot of sewage people believe that in this way the authorities will remove the restoration of their Blahodatne from the agenda some of the residents of Blahodatne have temporarily settled in Partyzanske The man lives in his son's dilapidated house along with agricultural machinery and harvested crops burned down in Blahodatne at the beginning of the war He miraculously survived and helped his neighbors evacuate from the shelling Mykhailo cannot hold back his tears when he recalls the beginning of the great war we gathered 2-3 families in a house and lived like that We thought that everything was about to end that such a horror could not last for a long time that the world would react and put Russia in its place Then the invaders set up a checkpoint on the bridge over the Ingul Canal and not everyone was allowed to pass through Those who were considered suspicious for some reason were turned back And they let me leave the village only with a pass: for example I could go to my son in Partyzanske for 3 hours and no more Russians also entered the village and scared the locals And when our people began to fight back and tried to push the Russians back I saw the bodies of dead soldiers lying on the streets I saw my friend being torn to pieces by a shell I grabbed my wife and neighbors - I filled a car full of people and drove them out of the village We ran away in the clothes we were wearing He went from a simple tractor driver to the head of two farms "Valentyna" and "Iryna" which is more than 1,500 hectares of land outside of Blahodatne he sows barley and sunflower on his son's land near Partyzanske We burned 200 tonnes of wheat and 250 tonnes of sunflower we have harvested the first 50 tonnes of barley this year We are waiting for the price to rise at least a little to break even I'm not talking about profit," the farmer continues I ask the owner if it's not scary to go out into the fields We were told by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES) that these fields near Partyzanske were not mined by the Russians because the village was not under occupation They offered us to go around the fields on our own and look for explosives came and took away the rocket or whatever was sticking out of the ground but suffered severe eye injuries," says Mr Dmytro himself is standing near the wreckage of the tractor he was hit by in March 2023 during the sowing season Zveryshyn goes on to say that he dreams of returning to his native Blahodatne and rebuilding his home He says that at a recent meeting of the village residents with representatives of the authorities the Blahodatne residents defended their home and are still waiting for the construction of temporary small houses the village council provides building materials for repairs They just wanted to demolish our village and move it to a pig farm And there is a meter of manure in the soil and they promised us that they would build temporary outbuildings 8 by 4 meters from foam blocks We will live in them and gradually rebuild our homes," says Mykhailo Zveryshyn We finish the coffee that the host bought us and get ready to go to Blahodatne Dmytro jokes that we will drink coffee at his place as well The joke is bitter: there is almost nothing left of the guy's house.. We were just getting into the car when a "delegation" of Partizanske residents approached us People's attention was drawn to the inscription "Press" on the car to tell their terrible story and ask for some help but they are all permeated with the same pain of the horrors of war Everyone asks - help us to restore the house The woman says that their family was lucky because the walls of their destroyed house were still intact volunteers come to the village and bring building materials and we need almost 20,000 UAH for our roof We have to live in a "trailer" (as the woman calls the tent provided by the village council for six months) in the garden," says Victoriia Little Ivan is a little afraid of strangers and runs away to the big house - You should have seen the state of this house when we returned in April.. We had to take everything apart ourselves.. and then we were given this temporary house," says Victoriia she did not want to leave the village at all even when fierce fighting was taking place nearby She and her son evacuated to Odesa only on March 30 My grandmother and uncle were also with us but he is scared to death of the air raid alarm The village is gradually coming back to life we are not afraid of difficulties," says Victoriia I say that it is hard to imagine how people dare to live in such conditions our "guide" Dmytro smiles and advises me to wait for half an hour: "These are just flowers On the outskirts of Blahodatne we see the grave of a soldier Dmytro says that the locals used to bury Ukrainian soldiers near the village We buried our dead fellow villagers right in the village So that relatives could exhume the remains and rebury them properly And the military - outside the village," the man explained Dmytro asked us to stop for a minute and went over to the grave to put an apple the man thanked the fallen soldier for his life The first house we encountered in Blahodatne belongs to Mykhailo Zveryshyn a farmer we had just talked to in Partyzanske We entered the garden and saw human-sized weeds fragments of building materials and personal belongings where the farmer had a granary and a shed with agricultural machinery Dmytro sternly emphasizes that we should follow him step by step because there may be unexploded explosives under the rubble Black pebbles crunch underfoot; we look closely and realize that we are walking on burnt grain.. Mykhailo had earned for half a century was destroyed and his equipment was completely destroyed Then we go on foot for a "tour" of the village There are still shell tails sticking out of the broken asphalt most of these "surprises" have already been removed by the locals who started returning to the village in late November last year The first "Robinsons" were two men so they decided to return to the ruins of their own homes They looked after the remnants of the machinery of the farmers who had cultivated the fields near the village before the war and the owners of the machinery brought them food was the lack of any help from the local authorities - "Representatives of the Amalgamated territorial communities (ATCs) came took pictures in front of the ruins and left Slate and beams brought to other villages will not help us I am very sorry when I see on TV stories about the restoration of Bucha and Irpen but we are also people and need help," says Dmitry The iron structure now looks like a colander with many bullet holes in the walls and ceiling this bus stop was used to take children to school in a neighboring village We also decided to take a look at this ruined institution with partially collapsed walls and fragments of expensive furniture - this is how the place where the kids were taught now looks like A rope still hangs from the brand new wall bars in the former gym a folder with CDs lies on the floor among the garbage - they contain classical music and fairy tales We go further into the bedroom and see a room scale on the floor Dmytro warns us loudly: "Do not stand on it which the Russians have left here." We leave the school very carefully because we realize that our guide is not joking now We are walking through the streets of a broken village Despite the fact that this is not our first "expedition" to frontline communities we are horrified to see the scale of destruction SO THAT WE HAVE A PLACE TO LIVE UNTIL WE DIE Dmytro takes us to the house of his aunt Svitlana the couple clears the rubble from the house and the surrounding area we see shells laid out in a row - these are today's "finds" - I was cleaning the rubble near the chicken coop it's nothing so bad," the woman shows Oleksandr boasts that he can carry a shell in his hands again "for the press" But he does not know if the dangerous object will explode So we unanimously dissuade the desperate man from such fun It's been eight months since the village was liberated The village headman told us that it would take 5-6 years to clear our village of mines They promised us reconstruction according to European standards We would like at least two rooms to be built here We don't need much to live out our lives At least they give us building materials in Partyzanske We were temporarily offered to go to Partyzanske We applied for the restoration of our home We filled out an act for the destroyed property Now the commission has to assess how much the house was damaged Many people in the village have no documents at all so they will most likely not be compensated for anything," says Svitlana She and her husband left the village in the first days of April 2022 - The Russians were standing under the bridge on the outskirts the shelling started - it was like "good morning." At 12 a.m. to milk the cows to be in time for the shelling We spent almost all the time in the basement One day a Ukrainian soldier came running to us and told us to close up because the Russians had entered the village then the cellar door opened and the "orcs" threw a brick grenade!" We started screaming: let us out Then one Russian came down to the cellar and asked if we had any military with us Then they kicked all of us outside and started interrogating us They asked where the 'nationalists' were hiding When we went up to the yard in the morning the house was gone," the woman recalls one of the last nights in the village Svitlana and Oleksandr returned to Blahodatne in April 2023 They received a folding bed for two from the village council The couple jokes that they will probably take turns sleeping now - "We can't get humanitarian aid either Can't you just call and tell me where and when to come and I don't get it at all because I don't have enough seniority All our lives we have never asked anyone for anything and relied only on ourselves And now we don't know what to hope for," the woman complains our guide Dmytro is scattering dry food for animals near the houses We say goodbye to Dmytro's relatives and go on to his house The guy once again took a carrier with him which he was unable to take with him the day he left the village A MOUNTAIN OF RUBBLE AND A SCARECROW AS AN IMITATION OF LIFE The grave is covered with slate and has a homemade cross on it so no one is concerned about exhuming the remains for civilian burial The Ukrainian military came to help them evacuate Uncle Vitya helped them carry his old grandmother to the car and when he returned to get his grandfather He was a good uncle," Dmytro says with regret Across the yard from the victim's house is Dmytro's house All that remains of it is a pile of rubble we also see an "exhibition" of shells Dmytro tells us that this one is from a Grad - I was one of the first to return to the village I saw the ruins of the house where I was born and raised so I later watched the video and realized what I had seen to the fullest I've seen a lot of other people's grief you can't put it into words," says Dmytro The prospect of restoring his house is also vague but the documents were not reissued in time - "I don't know if my mother and I can count on anything," Dmytro says sadly IT WILL TAKE AT LEAST FIVE YEARS TO REBUILD the head of the military administration of the Pervomaisk community We asked the official to explain whether the villagers were really offered to move to the territory of the former pigsties and what was really waiting for Blahodatne - final destruction or reconstruction according to European standards the village has been demining since the end of November 2022 - Sapper teams are working and conducting humanitarian demining our local and regional departments of the State Emergency Service units from other regions are all working and demining we cleared residential buildings and household plots If people find a shell in their garden or field and the explosives are taken away or neutralized on the spot," said the head of the Pervomaisk military administration we have enlisted the support of the regional military administration (RMA) and are doing everything possible to speed up the demining of Blahodatne build temporary 8-by-4-meter living quarters for people and equip them with stoves by winter mattresses and blankets," said Korovai Regarding the proposal to build temporary houses for Blahodatsk residents on the territory of former farms in Partyzanske the head of the administration explained that the soil on the land allocated for the houses is being tested no leader of any level will take on such obligations and build houses That's why we are now conducting geodesy and geology If it does not meet the requirements and there is at least a minimal risk to human life and health no one will force anyone to move," Korovai emphasized The official also added that the main reason why people do not want to move to Partyzanske is that most of them are farmers and have leased land in Blahodatne I understand perfectly well why their position is approached from this angle and why they complain about the military administration," said Maksym Korovai the project to rebuild the village is now being discussed with the regional military administration and international charitable organizations - "My main task is to preserve 11 settlements in the district it will not be possible to preserve Blahodatne in the form it was before the war It will take at least 5 years," the official said it should be noted that most of the residents of Blahodatne are pensioners And they may not have "at least 5 years" we understand that the front line is now quite close to Blahodatne and it is too early to talk about full reconstruction The material was written with the support of the NGO "Institute of Mass Information" which implements the project "Support for Active Citizens under Pressure in Ukraine" with the financial assistance of the European Union Russian occupation troops once again attacked Kharkiv region The victims have now been taken to a medical facility 1 of the Lozovsk RVP received a message about the shelling by the Russian army of the city of Pervomaisk Investigative and operational team and explosives equipment left at the address An inspection of the scene is currently underway On the facts of violation of the laws and customs of war the investigators opened criminal proceedings under Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine We use cookies to provide you with better navigation on our website you automatically agree to the use of these technologies Acest conținut este restricționat și poate fi accesat doar cu abonament Navigarea pe ipn.md este mai simplă dacă ai abonament Acest conținut video este restricționat și poate fi accesat doar cu abonament