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Beryslav Urban Territorial Community
Kherson
Population:
The Beryslav Urban Territorial Community is situated in the territory of the Beryslav District in the Kherson Region.
The total area of the territory amounts to 456,167 km2.
The population of the Community totals 18,062 residents (prior to the full-scale invasion).
Woman: 9,067 residents
Men: 8,995 residents
As of 01 February 2024, the population of the Community totalled 2,556 residents, including 569 internally displaced persons.
The Community consists of ten localities. The town of Beryslav is the administrative centre of the Community and the District.
History
Beryslav is included in the list of historical localities of Ukraine as the oldest settlement of the Kherson Region.
According to some data, an Ostrogoth settlement was located on the site of Beryslav in the 3rd – 4th centuries. The khan’s residence was situated there in the late 14th century. On its site, Prince Vytautas founded a Lithuanian fortress and a state customs house called the Vytautas Customs House.
Later, the settlement was occupied by the Crimean Tatars, and in the late 16th century the Ottomans built there a fortress to defend the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire against the Zaporizhia Cossacks.
During the years of the Turkish-Tatar rule in southern Ukraine, the Kyzy-Kermen (Kazykermen) fortress was built on the site of present-day Beryslav. According to chronicles, it was the strongest fortification in the entire lower Dnipro area.
In 1784, the town of Beryslav was rebuilt on the ruins of Kyzykermen. Its name comes from the expression “take the glory”.
The wooden Church of the Holy Introduction of Virgin Mary is located on the outskirts of the town. In 1725, it was built from oak in the border Zaporizhia fortress without using a single nail. It was named the Resurrection Church. In 1784, the Cossacks transported the building to Beryslav on rafts and reassembled it.
The wooden Cossack Church of the Holy Introduction of Virgin Mary in Beryslav is a unique architectural landmark of the 18th century in the south of Ukraine.
Another landmark in the Community is the mass grave of the heroes of the Crimean War of 1853-1856 with a memorial chapel. It was built in the Romanesque style in memory of the defenders of Sevastopol.
Beryslav is one of the six towns through which the Chumak Way passed in the 15th – 19th centuries. That was the most famous trade route connecting mainland Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula and used by Chumaks in the 16th – 19th centuries to transport salt from the Black Sea coast of Crimea and bread and other agricultural products from Ukraine.
In honour of this, stone memorials were installed in the towns along the route as a symbol of the inseparability of the cultural and historical ties of mainland Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula, the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar peoples.
Economy and Welfare
The Beryslav Urban Territorial Community has a powerful agricultural sector.
85% of the total lands in the Community are agricultural lands.
Agricultural producers specialize in the cultivation of grain, corn, soybean, rapeseed, sunflower crops, vegetables and perennial crops.
In 2018, the local farmers set a national record of Ukraine in the nomination “The largest area of cultivation of sweet pepper in Ukraine”. The achievement was officially recorded in the Book of Records of Ukraine on a sweet pepper field with an area of 79 hectares.
The Beryslav Machine-Building Plant operates in the territory of the Community being one of the oldest industrial enterprises in Ukraine founded in 1896. The territory of the plant covers an area of more than 16 hectares.
The enterprise specializes in the production of spare parts for locomotives and diesel trains, for track machinery, for agricultural machinery, etc. The machine-building plant produces more than 400 types of various goods annually. It also introduces and uses foreign technology in its production processes.
The Beryslav deposit is located in the territory of the Community. These are clay deposits that can be used as brick and tile raw materials. The building materials factory specialized in the production of moulded and fired clay bricks and blocks.
A ground photovoltaic plant with a total capacity of up to 20 MW operates on an area of 37 hectares in the north-eastern part of the town of Beryslav. In the Kherson Region, this industry is profitable because there are more than 200 sunny days a year in the region.
Community and War
On the first day of the full-scale invasion, russian troops entered Beryslav and occupied the Community. Entry and exit were blocked by the invaders. Foods, medicines disappeared from store shelves, pharmacies and shops closed down.
Residents supported and helped each other. Ten children with genetic diseases lived in the territory of the Community having to follow a specially prescribed diet for life. Therefore, the residents of the Community, despite the permanent danger from the invaders, joined their efforts and together searched for gluten-free products, which saved the children’s lives.
Local fishermen supplied the town and nearby villages with fresh fish, which were distributed to residents for free. They paid special attention to family-type orphanages, foster families and families with children.
And the residents of the village of Urozhaine milked their cows and distributed the milk to the children of Beryslav who needed additional nutrition. This initiative became an important source of necessary nutrients for children, especially in the difficult humanitarian situation due to the occupation.
Despite the occupation, the leadership team continued to work until the invaders expelled the Council workers at gunpoint.
The invaders terrorized the civilian population for ten months, but the Community remained Ukrainian thanks to the resilience of its residents.
On 11 November 2022, the Ukrainian military liberated the Beryslav Community from russian troops. Ukrainian rescuers began to clear the area of mines.
But at that moment, the russian troops began the total destruction of the Community. Due to the proximity to the contact line, dozens of shells reach the Community every day, the russians use drones and aerial bombs to destroy the civilian infrastructure, houses, hospitals, and schools of the Beryslav Community.
In the Community, despite the constant shelling, the Five Loaves and Two Fishes Charitable Kitchen-Canteen has been working since 2021. It was organized by a father of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
As the war broke out, the kitchen was the hope for survival of many Beryslav Community residents. Over 70,000 hot meals have been provided to families with children, single elderly people and ordinary citizens who found themselves in a difficult situation. For most of them, volunteers and social workers delivered meals directly to their homes.
Due to constant shelling of the Community, many of its residents are still forced to seek refuge in safer cities and towns of the country. One of these is the city of Kryvyi Rih, where, together with partners, they organized the children’s space “Beryslav Hive UTKC”. There, children together with their parents can have fun, develop and recover in comfort and safety with the help of a team of specialists because, despite the war and the ordeal, the children of the brave Beryslav Community remain children.
Taking into account the constant increase in the number of people who need help in the Community, the Caritas Beryslav Charitable Fund has been founded. Sections of the aid centre work in several localities of the Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk Regions.
People of the Community
Oleksandr Alchiev is the Head of the Beryslav Urban Military Administration.
The residents of the Beryslav Community are known for their intelligence, hard work and hospitality. These are people who are always ready to help each other and welcome guests warmly.
One of the key aspects of the Beryslav Community’s success is its role in the formation of personnel for the regional and regional levels. There are two professional colleges in the town: Beryslav Professional Pedagogical College and Beryslav Medical Professional College. Graduates of these institutions become the real pride of the region working in various fields and making their significant contribution to the development of education and medicine.
Before the full-scale war, the Community was always known for its ability to work hard and rest well. Traditionally, the residents gathered there on the Town Day, and annual art festivals for the development of children and youth were initiated.
The Community was a centre where not only culture, but sports developed as well.
Everyone, regardless of age, had the opportunity to play various sports ranging from football and basketball to tennis and chess. Sports events and competitions took place every week, bringing together the Community and supporting a healthy sports spirit. Charity tournaments, municipal championships and other events created opportunities for communication, development and support of sports talents in our Community.
Development Strategy
The Community has a Territorial Community Recovery and Development Plan and a catalogue of projects for the period 2023-2027.
The document has been drafted within the framework of the project “Support for the restoration of local self-government processes and reconstruction and recovery of communities in Ukraine”; it has been developed within the framework of the Strategic Partnership of VNG International with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
The Community prioritizes the creation of an agro-industrial development and innovation centre and work on infrastructure restoration, modernization and optimization in accordance with the principles of sustainable development and the use of environmentally friendly energy.
The Beryslav leadership team is actively looking for international partners. In 2022, the representatives of the Beryslav Town Council took part in a two-day strategic municipal partnership forum in Sindelfingen, which was held with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
As part of the support and recovery project, the leadership team visited the cities of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2023.
Thanks to the financial support of the Government of Great Britain within the framework of the project “Effectiveness of recovery and reconstruction processes in Ukraine through civic participation”, the Platform for civic participation in the recovery of the Beryslav Community is held there.
