Mishkovo-Pohorilove Territorial Community

History

The Mishkovo-Pohorilove Rural Territorial Community was formed on 19 September 2019 by way of amalgamating the Kolarivska and Mishkovo-Pohorilove village councils. The Mishkovo-Pohorilove Village Council is a small community on the scale of the Mykolaiv Region in terms of its surface area, but it is close to medium-sized communities in terms of its population.

The history of the community covers a huge period of time: from the settlements of the Bronze Age to the present.

Traces of settlements from different times have been found in the territory of the community. Some of them belong to the so-called pit (the late 3rd – the early 2nd millennium BC) and catacomb (middle of the 2nd millennium BC) cultures of the Bronze Age. There are also traces of Scythians staying in these areas in the 4th – 2nd centuries BC.

Researchers claim that the settlements, having emerged here once, periodically disappeared due to various reasons. However, a good location of this area (availability of water as the main condition for life, the soil fertility on the flooded meadows, a kind of loop that the Inhul River makes, thereby protecting the settlements from sudden enemy attacks) constantly attracted ancient tribes, and they periodically returned here and settled the area.

The name of the village comes from the surnames of Mishkov and Pohorilov, the runaway peasants who founded the hamlets. The first settlement appeared in the early 19th century, and in 1859 there were already 1,150 people living here. The rapid growth of the population was determined by the proximity of the industrial centre and a good geographical location.

In the floodplain of the Inhul River in the territory of the Mishkovo-Pohorilove Community, there is a nature reserve – the Sandy Peninsula landscape reserve. Species of animals that are included in the special protection lists live within the reserve (white heron, terrapin, white stork). The fact that there are two levels of floodplains is a valuable feature in the landscape structure of the reserve.

There are about 320 hectares of forest plantations in the territory of the community. In the village of Mishkovo-Pohorilove, there is a forest reserve of the same name with a surface area of over 176 hectares. The predominant species of trees are Crimean pine and Scots pine.

Economy and Welfare

Economically, the Mishkovo-Pohorilove Community is represented by enterprises operating in various fields of production. In particular, the food industry and the textile industry are well developed. There are also workshops producing paving slabs in the territory of the community. And of course, the most developed sector is the agricultural one.

Three companies installed ground-based solar power plants in the territory of the community. The steppe zone of the south of Ukraine is distinguished by the largest thermal resources as the summer is long, sunny, hot, dry, so these factors have a positive effect on the use of alternative energy in the region.

There are 3 schools and 5 kindergartens in the community. And in 2017, the Inclusive Resource Centre opened in the community for children with disabilities.

The Mishkovo-Pohorilove Community has two outpatient healthcare centres of the general family medicine practice and four urgent care centres. Also, a new outpatient primary healthcare centre was built permitting 3 to 4 doctors to receive patients at the same time.

Community and War

Since 24 February 2022, Mykolaiv has been an unconquered fortress that protects the south and all of Ukraine against the russian invaders. The Mishkovo-Pohorilove Community borders Mykolaiv, so it was preparing to meet the enemy first.

Mykolaiv immediately took one of the most powerful blows and was surrounded in the first days. The russian occupiers did not enter the territory of the community, but the local residents have suffered from constant shelling during the entire period of the war because the Mishkovo-Pohorilove Community became a community in the line of fire due to its proximity to the regional centre and its neighbourhood with the Bashtanka District where fierce battles with the occupiers took place.

Almost throughout the war, the russian occupiers have been shelling the village of Mishkovo-Pohorilove from a rocket salvo system, the shells hit the houses, some houses are without windows and doors, and holes are visible in the roofs, but the most tragic event happened when shelling took the lives of two children. There are no completely destroyed buildings; more than 20 have been significantly damaged.

As a result of constant shelling, critical infrastructure facilities, electricity and gas supply facilities were destroyed; residential buildings and motor vehicles were damaged.

At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Mishkovo-Pohorilove Community was the first to suffer and was deprived of electricity for two weeks, of gas for a week, and other critical infrastructure facilities worked in a manual mode, but despite this, the residents of the community quickly got their bearings and coped with the problem.

The long-term lack of electricity had a bad impact on people’s food stocks, and they were practically left without food. Then the head of the community, Andrii Botanin, single-handedly organized the delivery of humanitarian aid, attracting friend partners from other regions of Ukraine, and this is how a powerful volunteer movement was born in the community.

Currently, 2,800 internally displaced persons are registered in the territory of the community; they are provided by the community and volunteers with everything they need, from household items to food. In addition, thanks to partners, all the residents of the community in need receive humanitarian aid.

The head and employees of the “Veselka” kindergarten and library employees, with the support of the village head, organized humanitarian headquarters on their premises to collect and distribute aid to the population.

Thanks to the efforts of the village council, the foundations of NGO “City of Strength”, NGO “People Everywhere”, World Central Kitchen, “To Children of Ukraine”, the Mykolaiv District Military Administration, ULEAD with Europe, NGO “300 MYKOLAIVTSIV” and partners, the humanitarian headquarters managed to establish work aimed at helping not only the residents living in the territory of the community, but also the residents of the neighbouring de-occupied Bashtanka, Snihurivka, Shevchenkove, Shyroke communities, who suffered a lot during the war, for the villages that happened to be in the zero line on the first days of the war, the villages that were shelled every day.

The volunteer headquarters of the Mishkovo-Pohorilove Community, wanting to support families with small children living in the territory of the Snihurivka District of the Mykolaiv Region, which was under occupation until late November, jointly collected and handed over baby food, goodies, diapers, clothes, shoes, toys and strollers for the youngest children. The headquarters continues to provide aid to the recently de-occupied communities of the Mykolaiv Region.

But in addition to helping civilians, the humanitarian headquarters of the Pohorilove community never forgets those who defend our homeland – the Ukrainian military. They constantly organize collections of products and necessary things for the military.

Medical support to residents is vital, especially during challenges such as war. On the initiative of the head of the community, specialists were invited to examine the residents and free medicines were purchased for the residents.

People of the Community

Andrii Botanin, the head of the Mishkovo-Pohorilove Village Council, was born on 14 June 1975 in the village of Mishkovo-Pohorilove, Mykolaiv Region. At the beginning of his career, he was a successful entrepreneur, a counselor of the village council. In 2015, he was elected head of the Mishkovo-Pohorilove Village Council.

In 2020, having received full support from the residents of the village councils united on a voluntary basis – the Mishkovo-Pohorilove and Kolarivska village councils, he was elected head of the Mishkovo-Pohorilove Territorial Community.

In May 2021, the Mishkovo-Pohorilove Territorial Community took part in the annual regional competition of local self-government development projects and programs. And it won a right to create the “Open-Minded” media center at the Mishkovo-Pohorilove library for UAH 200,000.

The project is aimed at solving the infrastructure problem, developing the community’s youth potential, creating leisure centers according to the interests of school youth. The activities of the Media Center will contribute to the formation and development of the artistic skills of children and adolescents of educational institutions through the creation of a YouTube channel to improve the informing of residents about events in the community, which corresponds to the “Mishkovo-Pohorilove Village Council Development Strategy for 2021-2027”.

During the tenure of Andrii Botanin and his team, roads were repaired, street lighting was installed in all the settlements, libraries were overhauled and restored, heating boilers were replaced, boiler rooms were repaired, water pipes were replaced, and the material and technical resources of the community are continuously improved.

On the initiative of the head of the community, a memorandum on cooperation with the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Mykolaiv Region was signed, and the project “Community Police Officer” is planned to be implemented.

A Youth Council was set up in the community, constant work is being done with the youth of the community; with the support of the Mykolaiv City Development Fund, an ECO-community is being formed, as a result of which the Community Development Strategy has been updated.

The project “Dream Park of Karavelove Village Residents”, “School of Civic Action” is being implemented.

The authorities and residents have been struggling with unauthorized garbage dumps for many years. To deal with the problem, the local educational institutions have launched an educational campaign dedicated to garbage sorting. In each of the seven villages, containers for various wastes have been installed, and schoolchildren, together with their parents, organize campaigns for the collection of recyclable materials.

In order to learn and teach the environmental culture, for more than nine years students of three educational institutions of the community have been active participants in various environmental events, projects and competitions. Since 2018, they have been the participants in the Ukrainian national environmental movement “Let’s do it, Ukraine”, which annually organizes the World Cleanup Day.

It took place this year as well despite the fact that in September the community was in the front-line zone and constantly under fire.

The “Bag” campaigns have become a tradition: students made and distributed more than three hundred eco-bags to villagers in exchange for the proper sorting of recyclable materials. The team of environmentalists “Eco-Trail” is a multiple winner of many Ukrainian national competitions. It is said that Ukraine flourishes when a community flourishes. In order to make their territory clean, tidy and aesthetically attractive, school teams took part in a project aimed at landscaping Ukrainian schools and organized by the association of flower growers of the Netherlands and Ukraine – Flowers4school. They received and planted 500 bulbs of spring flowers.

The Mishkovo-Pohorilove Lyceum and the Mishkovo-Pohorilove Grammar School are among the top 50 best institutions of Ukraine and ranking 11th and 30th, respectively, according to the Eco-School National Rating.

On the initiative of the head of the community, the community took part in the Our Community competition with a project “From a Clean Community to a Clean Country”; unfortunately, the project was not a winner, but the community made it to the semi-finals and became a finalist of the competition.

Getting rid of garbage by building a waste processing plant was the goal of participating in the competition; part of the project was implemented, but the war has changed a lot of plans. However, future plans have not changed because the Mishkovo-Pohorilove Community will continue to be an agent of change on the environmental front.

Andrii Botanin, in addition to government aid, organized tens of tons of humanitarian aid and distribution centres. The village of Mishkovo-Pohorilove has a reception centre for temporarily displaced persons and disadvantaged categories of residents.

Development Strategy

List of projects being implemented in the community:

• Construction of a sports hall in the Mishkovo-Pohorilove grammar school;
• Repair of roads in the communities;
• Gasification of Zaichivske;
• Transfer of educational institutions to an alternative to natural gas heating
• Energy efficiency improvement at the educational institutions of the community;
• Restoration and creation of landscaping sites (park in the settlement of Zaichivske, parks in the village of Mishkovo-Pohorilove, park in the village of Kapustyne, etc.);
• Construction of a waste processing plant.

Strategic and operational development objectives of the Mishkovo-Pohorilove Community

1. Economic development of the community as a balanced system with industrial-production, agrarian-industrial and tourism sectors. Community’s competitiveness improvement
2. Creation of comfortable living conditions in the territory of the community, development of transport, engineering, social infrastructure and infrastructure of administrative services  
3. Creation and development of an effective management system of the amalgamated community based on digital transformation

List of Sources

• Website of the Mishkovo-Pohorilove Community
• Website of the Mykolaiv City Development Fund
• Public space website
• Socio-economic development strategy of the Mishkovo-Pohorilove Rural Territorial Community for 2021 – 2027 (updated)
• Facebook page on the history of the Mishkovo-Pohorilove amalgamated community
• Twitter account of the Mishkovo-Pohorilove Community