Huliaipole Territorial Community

History

The Huliaipole urban territorial community is located in the northeast of the Zaporizhzhia region. It is a unique and multifaceted territory with inexhaustible tourist potential and centuries-old historical and cultural heritage.

The town of Huliaipole is included in the List of Historical Population Centers of Ukraine and attracts attention with the history of the 1918-1921 civil war and the participation of the insurgent movement in it under the leadership of Nestor Makhno – the legendary leader of the peasant movement in southern Ukraine.

The town has numerous historical, cultural, and architectural monuments, objects that are known far beyond the region, including abroad. Explanatory signs and information stands are placed on the historical buildings of the town. The historical buildings of Huliaipole “tell” their stories to everyone who wants to know them – townspeople and guests of Nestor Makhno’s homeland. Tourists used to be attracted by the memorial house-museum of the family of Nestor Makhno, which was destroyed by a russian missile strike in 2024.

The decoration of Huliaipole was an open-air museum – a newly built chapel and an elegant park with benches, flower beds, and memorial signs – which was born in cooperation between patrons and local authorities.

Settlements and burials from the Late Bronze Age and burial mound groups from the 4th millennium BC – 1st half of the 2nd millennium AD have been discovered in the territory of the community’s villages.

Near the village of Uspenivka there is an object belonging to the botanical reserves of the nature reserve fund of local importance – “Balka Danylivska”.

A minizoo was located on the territory of the village of Rivnopillia, created on the initiative of the leaders of the local agricultural society.

Economy and Welfare

The Huliaipole community was one of the territories of the Zaporizhzhia region, which formed the basis of its agrarian power. Before the full-scale invasion, the main branch of the economy was agriculture, specializing in the cultivation of grain and industrial crops.

There were 25 agricultural enterprises, 50 farms, and 1 agricultural cooperative operating in the district. The industrial sector included 5 enterprises of machine-building and food industries. Some of them processed grain into groats and sold processed products in their own stores. In conditions of active hostilities, the activities of enterprises and organizations were completely or partially suspended.

The Huliaipole community had ambitious goals, which were largely achieved in the pre-war period. When the community faced its first difficulties – the quarantine period, despite everything, it managed to be named among the top 100 communities in Ukraine out of 1,540 existing ones and the top 3 in the Zaporizhzhia region in 2020.

The Huliaipole community was one of Ukraine’s first to receive a Mobile Administrative Services Center and a “mobile case”, which allowed providing administrative services to remote population centers and residents with limited mobility.

In 2020, EUR 2.4 million of international investments was attracted making the region’s best result. An Inclusive Resource Center was created and successfully operated.

Road repair equipment was purchased, which allowed the community to independently perform pothole repairs.

Within the framework of the Emergency Loan Program for the Recovery of Ukraine, the project “Reconstruction of kindergarten buildings of the communal institution “Preschool education institution, combined-type nursery-kindergarten “Sonechko” was recognized as the best social infrastructure project in the “Caring for Children” category.

With the assistance of the Government of Germany through the German Development Bank (KfW) for the restoration of the social and communal infrastructure of Ukraine, the community started the reconstruction of a non-residential building for IDPs with its transformation into residential apartments and major repairs of the roof and facade of the building of the nursery-kindergarten “Romashka” and a family medicine general practice outpatient clinic.

The reconstruction of the building of a specialized secondary school, co-financed by the European Investment Bank, was in the active phase.

A volunteer fire brigade was organized, which successfully operated in population centers remote from the administrative center of the community.

The head of the community managed to establish successful cooperation with socially active businesses. One of the results was the renovation of the premises for the boxing club “Tarpan”. Children were given the opportunity to do sports in comfortable conditions and with modern equipment.

 Community and War

Since February 2022, the territory of the community has been the front line. 80% of buildings have been destroyed, the infrastructure has been completely lost. 16,936 residents were forced to leave their homes. About 13% of the population remained in the community. These figures change daily.

All the projects that the leadership team managed to implement in education, medicine, social protection, culture, and landscaping in peacetime, as well as a large number of historical buildings, have suffered significant damage. However, the greatest loss is the deaths of compatriots on the battlefield who defended our Motherland or died from the consequences of enemy shelling.

Life circumstances forced the leadership team to reorganize the work of local government bodies, providing the most necessary things for civilians who continue to live in the community, internally displaced persons, and military personnel. Absence of electricity, water, and gas – these are the conditions of modern life in the Huliaipole community. Despite everything, utility workers continue to clean the streets and remove garbage and try to preserve buildings that were damaged by shelling.

Cooperation has been established with international organizations, charitable foundations, and volunteers who have been helping residents living on the front line since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, providing them with generators and the necessary equipment to work in war conditions.

For IDPs temporarily residing in the city of Zaporizhzhia, the provision of humanitarian aid has been established in the Space of Unity “Help Nearby” of the Polohy district.

In cooperation with volunteer Mykhailo Puryshev, co-founder of SPDEV, an invincibility point has been set up in the town of Huliaipole, where people can wash clothes, take a shower, charge mobile phones, drink coffee or eat, and get their hair cut.

Already today, local authorities are establishing contacts with potential investors and are taking priority steps towards rebuilding the Huliaipole community in order to return the population home.

Community People

In 2017, Serhii Yarmak was elected head of the Huliaipole urban territorial community. Over the course of 7 years, the head managed to unite a team of specialists and like-minded people who worked on the development of the community.

The work before the full-scale invasion resulted in creating jobs for people, preserving the full range of cultural institutions that have become part of the community, creating a “Social Services Center” to provide the population with basic social services, successful reform and stable operation of the network of healthcare facilities with the preservation of paramedic stations in the villages of the community.

To provide the community with basic services, systematic work was carried out to improve the condition of municipal roads, install street lighting in the villages of the community that were previously not illuminated, overhaul water mains and restore the groundwater source, provide the territory with systematic garbage collection and introduce its sorting. For effective and prompt repair of roads and ongoing repair of social institutions, Serhii YARMAK initiated the creation of two brigades on the basis of the utility company.

To support community initiatives, Serhii YARMAK introduced the “Participatory Budget”, which helped implement community residents’ projects using local budget funds.

Successful cooperation with international organizations allowed the Huliaipole community to be recognized at the regional, all-Ukrainian, and European levels.

All activities were aimed at ensuring that the Huliaipole area would be inscribed in history as one of the most powerful communities and take a worthy place in the domestic economic space.

The Huliaipole community is also known for its cultural events. The regional art festival “Volnytsia” was held annually, dedicated to the anniversary of the birth of Nestor Makhno.

The events for the Day of the Huliaipole Community were very popular. Among others, the most interesting were the festival “Pan Varenyk”, the mini-festival of yard songs “Lines of Life”, the competition for the youngest “Babycross”, youth bike races, exhibitions of pigeons and ornamental animals.

For the youth of the Huliaipole community, the festival of colors “Holi”, exhibitions of achievements, an open-air film screening, intellectual games “What? Where? When?”, themed parties and discos were held. At the beginning of 2022, the grand opening of the youth space “Youth hall” took place.

Since the beginning of the community’s formation, the mayor has launched a competition for children for the best New Year’s toy to decorate the main Christmas tree. Considering that the community’s residents were forced to leave their homes, in order to unite them and maintain contact with them, it was decided to continue the competition, but this time for a virtual Huliaipole Christmas tree.

Development Strategy

The Huliaipole Community Development Strategy until 2027 was prepared and approved before the full-scale invasion.

Strategic goal 1: building a system of relevant public social services adapted to the needs of residents. Developing, living safely and spending leisure time pleasantly.

Strategic Goal 2: Sustainable development of the local economy, inclusion of residents in economic life, as well as innovative and competitive entrepreneurship and agriculture. Having decent employment locally.

Strategic goal 3: an attractive and developed leisure offer based on history and rich cultural heritage, as well as natural and landscape features. Being proud of the past for the sake of the future.

Strategic goal 4: expansion and modernization of municipal and road infrastructure with protection of natural resources and a responsible attitude towards the environment. Living comfortably and safely.

However current conditions dictate new directions and strategic goals. A new strategic document for 2025-2027 is currently being developed with an emphasis on reconstruction and the return of residents to the community.

 List of Sources

• Facebook page of the Huliaipole Urban Territorial Community (1) Facebook
• Huliaipole – Wikipedia
• Virtual tour: Huliaipole community of the Zaporizhzhia region
• Personal photo archive of S.O. Yarmak
• Photo archive of the organizational and personnel department.