Kyselivka: a chance to restore

Storks on the background of a burnt field in the village of Kiselyvka

Before the start of the full-scale war, 660 residents lived in the village of Kiselivka, Mykolaiv region. At the beginning of the Russian invasion, the settlement, located halfway from Mykolaiv to Snihurivka, was on the front line. He was under occupation for about a week.

Kiselivka is one of the many villages in the Mykolaiv region that were actually destroyed by Russian shelling. «NikVesti» visited the village, talked with the residents and the head of the village military administration. In this article, we will talk about the consequences of the local battles for Kiselivka and today's challenges for the local authorities. The main question is whether the village will be able to recover and whether there will be a place for its residents to return to.

240 people remained in the village, many have nowhere to return

Kiselivka was under occupation at the beginning of March last year. However, for a long time the village was under fire from the Russian army, which took up positions in nearby Maksymivka, located further south in the direction of Kherson.

According to the information of the Pervomaysk settlement military administration, which was provided in response to the information request of «NikVesti», if until February 24, 2022, 660 residents lived in Kyselivka, then today there are actually 240.

Ruined house, village Kiselivka

337 houses were damaged and destroyed in the village. Simple math says that virtually every house in the village has been damaged or destroyed.

We are in the eastern part of the village, which was the most affected by the Russian shelling. A large part of the houses are in ruins, some have damaged roofs. And only one house stands out among the others — as it turned out, local farmer Serhii Kaushan lives there, who is finishing the repair work on his house. 100 meters from the house there were trenches, where the Russians were at first, and then these positions were occupied by the Armed Forces.

 — It was dangerous to be in the village, a lot of people flew in. There were 500 missiles per day. To a small village! — says Serhii Kaushan.

For almost 9 months, Kyselivka was shelled from nearby Maksymivka, where Serhii Kaushan has a field. Now he and his fellow villagers are helping to put out fires that arise there due to explosions of streamers and other explosive objects left by the Russians.

Starting from February 2023, work on demining Kyselivka is being carried out. Representatives of the State Emergency Service inspected public areas, social and critical infrastructure facilities. As for private houses, emergency services cannot enter private territory without the presence of the owners of the house.

«In February 2023, in the territory of the village of Kyselivka, residents were present on the territory of 30 households, so all these houses with courtyards were surveyed and, if necessary, demined. As the owners and residents return to their homesteads, employees of the State Emergency Service are called to inspect and, if necessary, demining the private territory», —says the response of the Pervomaysk VMA to the request of «NikVesti».

Maksym Korovay, the head of the Pervomaysk settlement military administration, stated in a comment to «NikVesti» that the issue of restoring houses is the most pressing issue for the residents of Kyselivka today. The construction materials that the community receives from the state and donors are not enough to cover all the needs of the villagers who want to rebuild their own housing.

One of the streets of the village, in the foreground a tear from the explosion. In the background - a destroyed store building

60% of villagers do not have documents for houses that were destroyed

The Pervomaysk village military administration (VMA) created a special commission that is engaged in surveying and recording the facts of damage and destruction of buildings and other objects and determining the cost of their restoration. This is a necessary condition for inclusion in the «eVidnovlennia» program for receiving monetary compensation for destroyed or damaged property.

On August 15, the second stage of the program began in Ukraine, which concerns completely destroyed housing — these are real estate objects that are subject to replacement thanks to certificates or vouchers. Before that, within the framework of the program, minor damages were compensated, allocating up to 200 thousand hryvnias.

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In Kyselivka, 123 building inspection reports were drawn up. However, only 34 houses were entered into the register of damaged and destroyed property — this is 10% of all damaged houses in Kyselivka.

Maksym Korovai, the head of Pervomaysk VMA, in a comment to «NikVesti» noted that this is due to the lack of relevant documents in the majority of owners of damaged or destroyed buildings.

— There are no legal documents, state documents for the land, no property rights, no BTI passports, which must be brought into Action and the program «eVidnovlennia». About 60% do not have legal documents. This slows down the processes - the local commission goes to the facilities, conducts an inspection and, according to the law, gives people a refusal because they do not have all these documents, — said Maksym Korovai.

As it turned out, the problem with housing documents is not unique to Kyselivka, a similar situation is observed throughout the Mykolaiv region. To resolve this issue, the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration appealed to local councils regarding the possibility of allocating funds through the municipal social protection program «Turbota» for the restoration of housing ownership documents for socially vulnerable population groups. Andrii Hreits, the first deputy head of the Mykolaiv district military administration, told about this in a comment to «NikVesti». He informed that the Pervomaysk UTC, which includes Kyselivka, has already allocated 50 thousand hryvnias in the budget for these needs, but so far none of the villagers has addressed the village council with this problem.

School in the village of Kiselyvka

They want to restore the school, but it is not known for what money

In addition to residential buildings, a lyceum was destroyed in Kyselivka, a pre-school education institution and the building of the headman, which also housed a medical center and a post office, were destroyed. Destroyed shops, a village library, an assembly hall where mass events were held.

According to Maksym Korovai, all educational institutions on the territory of UTC, including Kyselivska, are conserved with the help of rails, beams, OSB-sheets, tarpaulins.

— We made every effort so that those educational institutions that were partially damaged could be preserved and we could do everything possible to partially restore the mixed form of education or to bring the children out in the face-to-face format, — said Maksym Korovai.

If the local authorities manage to find funds for at least partial restoration of destroyed educational institutions and providing them with shelters, it will be able to solve the issue of education and leisure for the children of four villages: Kyselyvka, Maksymivka, Kvitneve, and Zasillia.

According to preliminary data, up to 105 children can study at the lyceum in Kyselivka, but on the condition of alternating education.

A classroom of a damaged school in Kyselivka

How much money is needed in advance to do this? The simplest ground shelter costs from 2 to 3 million hryvnias. If it will be an underground shelter, then it will cost at least 5-6 million hryvnias to fully equip it, with evacuation exits, a water supply system, heating, and an alarm system, says Maksym Korovai.

— According to the rules of the State Emergency Situations and the requirements of the Ministry of Education, there must be a thorough shelter that could protect both the students and teachers. Now we are still at the stage of negotiations, we will discuss with donors what they will offer us, and what we will offer from our side, based on the current situation. But it is 100% true that we are interested in preserving educational institutions in Kyselivka, — said Maksym Korovai.

A modular medical center will be built in Kyselivka, and villagers will continue to receive food kits

Residents of Kyselivka currently do not have the opportunity to receive basic medical care on the spot: to measure blood pressure, make a drip or get a doctor's consultation. During the period of active hostilities, the most common medicines were provided to the villagers as humanitarian aid: anti-pressure, cardiac, painkillers, as well as dressing materials.

Doctors from various international organizations, including «Doctors Without Borders», are now conducting visiting appointments in the village.

However, the local authorities set themselves the task of equipping a modular medical center with a bed, a table, high-quality lighting, and a minimum set of medical equipment.

— So that a person can come to measure their blood pressure, take a pill, get a dropper, get a psychological medical consultation. This process continues, but the degree of damage and destruction of Kyselivka is extremely large, it is very difficult to stabilize the situation, — said Maksym Korovai.

Villagers continue to receive free bread, canned goods, and monthly food packages. Kyselivka and Maksymivka will continue to receive this food aid, Maksym Korovai assures.

Donors will help restore water supply

We meet a local resident, 65-year-old Mariia Kliaus. She carries potable water home in buckets on her bicycle — there is no water supply in the village, also due to shelling. «Before, we only carried water home with bottles, now it's like we're in Mykolaiv», — he jokes. As you know, Mykolaiv was left without a centralized drinking water supply in April 2022.

Maria Klyaus, a resident of the village of Kiselyvka

Now Kyselivka and Maksymivka are equipped with generators and tanks. Water from a well is pumped into them, and in this way people can get it for household needs and cooking, Maksym Korovai assures.

Meanwhile, the Pervomaysk VMA is conducting negotiations on the restoration of water supply in Kyselivka.

Temple: The greatest value of Kyselivka will be rebuilt

The Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Kiselyvka was destroyed by Russian shelling in 2022

The 170-year-old Temple of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Kyselivka, Mykolaiv region, has been of great importance to the local community since its foundation. At the beginning of May last year, the Russians destroyed the temple building.

Read also: They were targeted with a tank from a neighboring village: how the Russians destroyed a 170-year-old temple in the Mykolayiv region

According to the rector of the parish of St. Joseph in Mykolaiv, Father Oleksandr Repin, the church was very valuable for the village, because there are no other churches or monuments of culture and architecture there. The temple was the first to be built in the village, it served the spiritual needs of more than three thousand believers. It became a symbol of the Polish village, where Poles, Lithuanians and Belarusians lived, living together and maintaining traditional family communication.

The church cannot be restored. But, as Father Oleksandr noted, the parish together with the Polish Catholic community plan to rebuild a new church on this site after the end of the war.

— We plan to rebuild together with our friends from Poland. But it will not be the same as before. It is impossible. We plan to leave the back wall that survived. It will be the wall to which we will attach the new temple. We will build from the stones left over from the temple, — said father Oleksandr.

Now, together with the «Depol» charity organization, he helps the residents of Kyselivka with slate and products. Parishioners also help with the restoration of damaged houses in the village.

What is the prospect of Kyselivka returning to normal life

Today it is difficult to predict whether Kyselivka will revive, whether there will be work there, whether there will be leisure for children. And the most important thing — will the residents who fled from the shelling and now simply have nowhere to return, as only a mountain of construction debris remained of their homes, will return there?

The head of the village military administration Maksym Korovai is optimistic. He says that his goal is to revive all the villages affected by hostilities on the territory of the community: «I believe that we will be able to revive life in the villages by about 70%».

But a lot depends not only on local authorities, but also on the willingness of local residents to unite and restore their village.

Kateryna Sereda, NikVesti