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Chmyrivka Territorial Community
The Chmyrivka Rural Territorial Community is situated in the territory of the Starobilsk District of the Luhansk Region.
Total areas of the Community: 511.98 km2
Population: 9,647 residents (as of early 2022)
Men: 4,621 residents
Women: 5,026 residents
The Community consists of twenty-two villages with the village of Chmyrivka being its administrative centre.
History
It is believed that the village of Chmyrivka began to be developed in 1810. Its first resident was Ivan Chmyr, who came to these lands with his family from the village of Pidhorivka in the Starobilsk District. The family was engaged in agriculture. When the settlement grew, and Ivan Chmyr was a respectable person, the settlement was named Chmyrivka in his honour.
There is a military cemetery on the territory of the village, where 48 Polish officers, who died in captivity in 1940, were buried on the land of Starobylsk. Every year on November 1, on the Polish Day of Remembrance of All the Dead, representatives of the Polish diaspora and the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland visit the burials of officers.
The Community is green and picturesque, has great tourist and recreational potential. It possesses nature reserves: Church Forest national forest reserve and Pryhodivskyi local forest reserve, Shpotynske Spring local hydrological nature site, Sosnove and Shyroke reserves.
Economy and Welfare
The economic potential of the Chmyrivka Community was based on the agro-industrial complex. The main specialization of agricultural enterprises operating in the Community was the cultivation of sunflowers and cereals (wheat, spring barley, grain corn), processing of agricultural products, cooling of milk. Both small and medium-sized enterprises operated across the Community in the field of water supply, forestry, road construction (overhaul), higher vocational education, and communal services.
The area of grain crops cultivated by the local enterprises amounts to about nine thousand hectares; and almost the same area is used to grow sunflower crops. According to the main agricultural enterprises of the Community, the gross harvest of cereals and sunflowers and their productivity have a growing tendency.
There are four enterprises operating in the field of animal husbandry, which kept about 1,000 cattle and 1,500 pigs.
The residents of the Community are engaged in beekeeping and poultry farming in their private households. In early 2022, there were almost 1,000 bee colonies kept by fifteen owners.
Community and War
Since 26 February 2022, the entire territory of the Community has been under temporary occupation; during the full-scale invasion by russian troops, the networks of Ukrainian mobile operators were turned off. Currently, there is no Ukrainian mobile operator and there is no Internet available across the Community. The population is in a complete information blockade and is under constant pressure of russian propaganda, which distorts facts and spreads misinformation in order to tame the resistance of the pro-Ukrainian population.
Cases of persecution and abduction of residents who took part in the anti-terrorist operation in 2014 and are Ukrainian combatants were recorded in the territory of the Community. There is evidence that a veteran of the anti-terrorist operation, a resident of the Community, was convicted in the territory of the aggressor’s country on charges of “participation in a terrorist operation”.
In the village of Chmyrivka, there is a burial site for soldiers who sacrificed their lives in combat operations across the Luhansk and Donetsk Regions in 2014. The occupying forces committed an act of vandalism and removed the flags of Ukraine installed near each grave.
On 24 August 2018, the Community started a tradition of holding an annual football tournament in honour of IVAN KULISH – a military man, a local resident and an activist of the village of Butove, who died in 2014 for the Independence of Ukraine. Ivan was an active participant in the Euromaidan events (Revolution of Dignity in 2013-2014), one of the organizers of resistance to separatism in Starobilsk.
People of the Community
The Community is run by its head Valerii Vydysh.
In September 2022, a decree of the President of Ukraine established the Chmyrivka Rural Military Administration. Valerii Vydysh was appointed at the same time.
Before the occupation, the Chmyrivka Rural Territorial Community was actively implementing reforms in the system of education, health care, and the social services.
The Chmyrivka Community was the first community to get united in the Starobilsk District and the fourth one in the Luhansk Region, which formed a team of specialists who worked hard to achieve qualitative changes in the provision of administrative services to the population. Much attention was paid to the involvement of residents in the Community administration processes; the Public Budget, the Budget for Citizens were introduced, the Youth Council and the Coordinating Council on Gender Issues were active.
Currently, all the efforts of the Chmyrivka Military Administration are focused on preparing for the de-occupation of the Community’s territory and supporting the internally displaced persons of the Chmyrivka Rural Territorial Community.
Development Strategy
In the summer of 2021, work began to update the Community Development Strategy, which is valid until 2025. Unfortunately, the occupation of the territory prevented the Community from achieving its goals. So far, the Program of Socio-Economic and Cultural Development for 2024-2026 has been approved, which takes into account possible challenges caused by the full-scale invasion by the russian federation.
The program is aimed at overcoming the consequences of hostilities and the consequences of occupation in the territory of the Community’s localities; support of internally displaced persons; effective performance of powers by the military administration in the conditions of temporary occupation of the territory of the Community; creation of conditions for the restoration of economic growth; attraction of internal and external investments.
Due to the occupation, the reconstruction projects of the complex of buildings to accommodate the Social Services Centre (with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)) and the reconstruction of the Topolok kindergarten remain unfinished.
Sources
- Official website of the Chmyrivka Rural Territorial Community (chmyrivska-gromada.gov.ua)
- Facebook page of the Chmyrivka Rural Territorial Community (facebook.com)
- Facebook page of the Chmyrivka Rural Military Administration (facebook.com)