Residents of the de-occupied villages cited this as the main reason why people are not returning

A restored residential building in the village of Partizanske, photo by ‘NikVesti’

In the de-occupied villages of the Mykolaiv region, a lack of jobs remains one of the main problems. Local residents say that simply rebuilding homes is not enough to bring people back — jobs need to be created and social infrastructure restored.

This is discussed in the article by NikVesti entitled «No school, no life». How do the most devastated villages in the Mykolaiv region live today?

The village heads of the de-occupied villages point out that for residents to return, they need not only repaired houses, but also a school, a nursery, healthcare and work.

«We need to get the infrastructure up and running, open a school and a nursery. We don’t have a health centre. And people also need some sort of work. That’s the main thing — people need to work and earn a wage,» said Ivan Volko, head of the village of Kyselivka.

According to him, there are currently only two shops and a few farms operating in Kyselivka.

«That’s very few. Young people need to feed their families. They look for work elsewhere and leave,» he added.

Valentyna Lakota, head of the «Cinderella» nursery, shares this view.

«There aren’t enough jobs or housing. Without work, people won’t be able to live here,» she said.

Similar problems are being reported in the village of Luch. Although some of the damaged housing has been repaired here over the last three years and electricity, water, gas and internet have been restored, locals are not yet talking about the large-scale reconstruction that was announced following the de-occupation.

«We haven’t got anything new here. International organisations helped — they replaced people’s windows and repaired the damage. But as for building or rebuilding anything new for us — that hasn’t happened,» said Svitlana Hinzhul, director of the village cultural centre.

Svitlana Hinzhul, director of the cultural centre in the village of Luch, photo by NikVesti

According to her, for people to return to the village, it needs not only repaired houses but also new jobs.

«We need to install a sewerage system and build a road to the village. And if they were to build a factory here, that would be absolutely brilliant, so that people would have somewhere to work,» she noted.

Before the full-scale invasion, some of Luch’s residents worked at the local radio station and also commuted to businesses in Mykolaiv.

—We had a radio station where people worked. There was «Elika», which took people on to work. The same went for «Sandora». But now people are looking for work wherever they can find it,» added Svitlana Hinzhul.

It should be recalled that during a working meeting, the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, raised the issue of staff shortages in the local labour market and outlined ways to address it through the integration of internally displaced persons and veterans.