Mykhailo-Lukasheve Territorial Community

History

Traces of the presence of earlier civilizations – nomadic tribes of Scythians and Sarmatians – have been preserved on the territory of the community. These are mainly burial mounds.

The village of Mykhailo-Lukasheve was founded in 1780 by serf peasants. People were resettled to the Mykhailo-Lukasheve lands by the landowner Mykhailo Karavatka, who used to be the commandant of the Oleksandrivka Fortress. In 1793, the lands and the village were acquired by a new owner – the landowner Lukashevych. Hence the double name of the village – Mykhailo-Lukasheve. Serfs from the Poltava and Kharkiv regions were also resettled here.

In 1873, a 20-bed hospital appeared in the village. It was popularly called the “soroko panska” because it served mainly the rich and German Mennonites who had settled in neighboring population centers.

In 1917, the village became part of the UNR (Ukrainian People’s Republic). Due to a military defeat in the battle, Mykhailo-Lukasheve was occupied by the Bolsheviks for a long time.

Most of the community’s population centers were formed just like Mykhailo-Lukasheve. They were founded on the lands of the former Cossack elders.

The village of Andrianivka was founded by German colonists in 1780. The ancient name of the population center was Rosenfeld. Later, within the framework of Russian imperial policy, the village was named Moskovka after the Mokra Moskovka River. In 2024, a decision was made to rename the village to Andrianivka.

In 1839, the St. Nicholas Church was built in the village in honor of St. Nicholas.

Economy and Welfare

Agriculture was and remains the most developed sector in the community. The main areas of development of the agro-industrial complex are the cultivation of grain and industrial crops.

Three enterprises are engaged in poultry farming. There is a bakery that provides residents of Mykhailo-Lukasheve and neighboring communities with baked goods.

Trade and microbusiness – floriculture, strawberry cultivation, greenhouse vegetable growing, and beekeeping – are actively developing.

In the village of Helendzhyk, 2 green tourism estates have been created, which are adapted for the recreation of people with special needs. During their vacation, visitors can experience the beauty of the surrounding nature, try homemade village food, and participate in agricultural work: feeding animals, picking vegetables, berries, or fruits. The estates have comfortable recreation areas.

Community and War

The Mykhailo-Lukasheve community is located 50 km from the front line, next to communities that are under constant shelling.

With the beginning of the full-scale war, the population of the community increased by 15% due to internally displaced persons who left the Polohy and Huliai Pole districts, as well as the Donetsk and Kherson regions.

The proximity of the community to the front line determines the issue of public safety and security. This includes the need to build shelters, an emergency warning system, and a Security Center.

The increase in population has led to a significant burden on the infrastructure. Due to the unsatisfactory condition of the networks, the community cannot provide quality water supply services. Therefore, a number of priority projects are aimed specifically at restoring the water supply system.

The amount of solid household waste has increased, which has become a new challenge for the community. Due to the lack of specialized equipment, garbage accumulates in natural landfills and there is no secondary recycling of useful waste.

The war also negatively affected the development of the education system. The decrease in the number of school-age children led to a reduction of the network of education institutions. There was a lack of pupils in schools which resulted in an outflow of subject teachers as they did not have a full workload. Thus, the quality of educational services deteriorated.

Maintaining a small number of schools is economically impractical due to significant costs for energy and employee salaries. Therefore, the community is faced with an acute issue of optimizing education.

There is also a negative trend in health care facilities: an acute shortage of doctors, outdated material and technical base.

There is an outflow of qualified personnel due to the full-scale invasion, as most residents have joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and are defending the country’s independence.

It is worth noting that the critical infrastructure of the community was not damaged by the shelling. But the double load, for example, on outdated and worn-out water supply networks leads to frequent surges, deterioration of the quality of drinking water. Therefore, there is an urgent need to reconstruct water supply networks, replace equipment at the pumping station, build new water supply networks, and search for alternative sources of water supply.

Also, due to the heavy load on the roads, their quality has deteriorated significantly. This is especially relevant to the roads that are communally owned.

Community People

The community is headed by Olena Baidukova. Despite the community’s proximity to the front line, it is developing and participating in projects under her leadership.

The Mykhailo-Lukasheve community participates in the implementation of international projects. For example, thanks to the support of the German Federal Foreign Office, the community’s water supply was improved and shelters were equipped and furnished.

As part of the UN Women – Ukraine project, implemented in partnership with the Ukrainian Women’s Fund, a women’s self-help group has been created in the Mykhailo-Lukasheve community, where women activists have learned how to write project applications.

Based on the developed gender profile of the community, it was found that women in villages lack opportunities for education, in particular due to lack of free time and the need to perform household chores. Therefore, a space for learning and self-realization of local women – “Ostrivets Tepla” – was created in the community and is located in the premises of the village lyceum.

Thanks to the support of the Swedish-Ukrainian PROSTO “Support to Services Accessibility in Ukraine” Project, the community received a car and equipment to provide services to residents in an on-site format. Now residents can use the services of the administrative services center at home.

There are a number of investment projects in the community that could provide an opportunity to attract additional funds through the creation of new infrastructure facilities.

The Mykhailo-Lukasheve community is also implementing a Safe Environment Development Strategy. They are equipping community police officer stations, installing interactive radars and video surveillance cameras.

Development Strategy

The community is preparing a development strategy until 2027. The working group collects statistical data for socio-economic analysis of the community, surveys its residents and entrepreneurs. In addition, interested citizens can submit their proposals to the working group for consideration and present their own vision of the further development of the Mykhailo-Lukasheve community.

Here they are working on developing a program for the comprehensive restoration of the Mykhailo-Lukasheve territorial community. The working group was joined by representatives of the village council, representatives of public organizations and self-help groups. The working group also included active and caring local residents of the community. Representatives of the authorities and the community learned to interact, identified a number of painful problems for the community, prioritized them and tried to outline ways to solve them.

List of Sources

• Community website
• Community Facebook page
• Facebook page of the community leader
• Website of the Zaporizhzhia Regional State Administration