Snihurivka Territorial Community

History

Snihurivka was founded by settlers – peasants from the villages of Snihurivka and Nenaidekivka, Klimovytskyi District, Mogilev Province (today’s Belarus) in 1812, which became part of the Zasilska Volost of the Kherson District, Kherson Province. Later, peasants from Smolensk and other provinces, fugitive serfs from the northern regions of Ukraine, as well as army retirees began to move in.

According to the audit data of 1816, 322 people already lived there, and in 1859 there were 125 yards in the village with a population of 928 people. In 1816, the village began to have its own church – at first it was wooden, and later a stone one was built.

In 1891, a medical centre was opened in Snihurivka, where one doctor and a paramedic served 15,500 local residents.

In January 1912, Snihurivka became a volost centre.

In the 20th century, Snihurivka became the grain trade centre of the Kherson District. This was facilitated by the good location of the village near the Kherson-Kremenchuk highway, as well as water connections along the Ingulets River with Kherson and other Black Sea ports. In 1916, the Kherson-Mykolaiv-Katerynoslav (Dnipropetrovsk, now Dnipro) railway was built with the Snihurivka station.

The Snihurivka Urban Territorial Community was created on 30 June 2019 by merging the Snihurivka Town Council and eight village councils.

Economy and Welfare

The Snihurivka Community is a land of farmers and agrarians. The stable development of the field of crop production is the result of painstaking, daily work of farmers. This means the use of intensive technologies for growing agricultural crops, the development of irrigated agriculture, and the use of high-quality seeds of high reproduction with observance of cultivation technology.

The Snihurivka Community has a highly developed land reclamation system, the history of which began in 1951 with the construction of the Inhulets irrigation system, thanks to which many hectares of fertile but arid community lands can receive water from the Dnipro.

Before the occupation and the start of hostilities, the Community’s industrial potential was represented by processing industry enterprises:

– Snihurivskyi Maslozavod: production of butter, hard cheese;

– Ukryugekoprom: Snihurivska mineral water bottling workshop;

– Grain-Impex: flour production enterprise;

– internal complex for processing and preservation of agricultural products “Skhidnyi” and “Organic Systems” (Agrofusion Group of Companies): based on the processing of tomatoes of the farm with a capacity of 27,000 t/year, in general it accounts for about 85 percent of industrial production;

– two enterprises baking bakery products.  

In October 2019, Agrofusion Group implemented the investment project “Vegetables Drying Plant Construction” in the town of Snihurivka. The plant produced a highly concentrated tomato product – tomato powder. Forty new jobs were created.

Before the beginning of hostilities in the territory of the Community, in 2021 the Community ran fourteen general secondary education institutions, nineteen preschool education institutions, one vocational and technical institution, the Snihurivka Children’s and Youth Art Centre and the Snihurivka Children’s and Youth Sports School of the Snihurivka Town Council.

Culture in the Community was represented by four institutions, namely: Snihurivka Children’s and Youth Art School (the building was destroyed during hostilities), Snihurivka Local History Museum, Public Library, which includes fifteen rural branches, Snihurivka Culture Centre (currently very damaged) with eighteen branches in the rural areas.

The sports life in the town of Snihurivka cannot be imagined without the children’s and youth sports school, which was opened in 1963. In different years, such sports as gymnastics, volleyball, football, athletics, gymnastics, chess and even cycling were practiced there.

In the 1970s, a new sport – judo – started to be practiced in Snihurivka, which brought world fame to our town thanks to the successes of the athletes trained by Honoured Coach of Ukraine Serhii Zinkovskii. About forty thousand boys and girls have been trained at this sports school.

The successes of the Snihurivka-based judokas include victories not only in the Ukrainian national competitions, but also in international ones. The honour of Ukraine at a high international level was defended by the champions and prize-winners of Ukraine, Europe and the world. Due to high results achieved over many years, the children’s and youth school enjoyed the status of a specialized school of the Olympic reserve.

 Community and War

The Snihurivka Urban Territorial Community was under occupation for almost nine months. Russian occupation troops entered Snihurivka on 19 March 2022. Shortly before the occupation, the russians dropped several aerial bombs on the town and shelled it with multiple rocket launchers.

During the entire period of occupation by russian troops, the town was completely without electricity, without water and practically without food. Thus, the town and the villages were practically on the verge of a humanitarian disaster. And all this was accompanied by constant terror against the local population (including torture, interrogations, and threats) and shelling by the russians.

The most disgusting thing was that very often the invaders conducted chaotic mortar and artillery fire from their advanced positions directly at the houses of local residents on the cameras of the filming crews of the propaganda TV channels of russia, falsely passing it off as shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition, the invaders did everything to limit the residents’ access to mobile communications and the Internet.

During the entire period of occupation, every rotation of the russians was accompanied by daring looting on their part. At the beginning, orcs openly looted stores with household appliances. Then they began to take away all the valuable equipment from the local factories. Therefore, almost all the equipment from the “Skhidny” tomato processing plant, all the equipment from the local bakery, butter factory and other large enterprises were taken to russia. The russians also stole most of the panels from the solar power plants near Snihurivka, and equipment from the town’s utility companies. When there was nothing to steal, the orcs ransacked the homes of the residents who were forced to leave their homes. The orcs did not disdain motor vehicles: they took everything that could be driven from the residents – cars, special equipment, motorcycles and even mopeds.

The Snihurivka Community was liberated on 10 November 2022. Fleeing from the Snihurivka Community, the russians destroyed all the bridges and crossings over the Inhulets River and bridges over the canals of the irrigation systems.

As a result of the russian occupation and active hostilities in the territory of the Community, one and a half thousand private houses, twenty-one high-rise buildings, twenty-one educational institutions, six administrative buildings, and six bridges (five road and one pedestrian ones) were damaged. One of the settlements of the Community – the village of Bezimenne – was practically erased from the face of the Earth.

People of the Community

During the first months, thanks to the close cooperation of the Community leadership with the State Special Service of Transport, a number of bridge crossings over the Inhulets River and through the canals of the irrigation systems, which were destroyed by the russians during their retreat, were rebuilt in the Snihurivka Community.

As a result of Ivan Kukhta’s close cooperation with local businesses, two modern German buses were purchased for the town’s needs last March. Also, as part of international cooperation, the Snihurivka Community received a modern backhoe loader and two garbage collection trucks.

 Development Strategy

The strategic plan for the development of the Snihurivka Urban United Territorial Community until 2030 has been adopted.

The main strategic goals of the development of the Snihurivka Urban United Territorial Community include as follows.

1) Unique conditions for the “green” economy of the future with developed infrastructure and logistics.

– Infrastructural support of economic development;

– Flexible and safe logistics capabilities;

– Development of labour potential;

– Marketing and promotion of the Community.

2) A rational and standardized system of providing social services.

– Involvement of the public, youth in the Community governance process;

– High-quality and affordable administrative services;

– Development of an effective network for the provision of medical services;

– An inclusive and highly effective educational, cultural, sports space.

3) Resource-efficient, attractive and safe living space.

– Energy-efficient social infrastructure and safe housing stock;

– Management of solid waste without harming the environment;

– Convenient and safe transportation;

– Normalized community space that is understandable for its residents and investors;

– Law and order and security;

– Preservation and development of the Community green areas and water resources.

List of Source

1. Snihurivka Town Council: https://snigurivska-gromada.gov.ua/ 
2. Book titled “Snihurivka Community: from the Past into the Future”
3. Drone-taken pictures: a bird’s eye view of the Snihurivka Community (Dmytro Pianik): https://www.facebook.com/snigurivshyna/ 
4. Snihurivka Children’s and Youth Sports School / Judo School: https://www.facebook.com/JudoSnigirevka