Nikopol Urban Community

History

The territory where present-day Nikopol is located has always been considered a strategic one. In the second half of the 1st century AD, a trade route connecting Scandinavia, Kyivan Rus and the Byzantine Empire passed across it.

The Nikopol area is inextricably linked with the history of the Zaporizhia Cossacks. In the 16th – 18th centuries the Nikopol area was the military and political centre of the Lower Zaporizhia Army. Five of the seven known Zaporizhia Siches were located there – Tomakivska, Bazavlutska, Mykytynska, Chortomlytska and Nova Siches.

In 1639, the Cossacks of the Zaporizhia Army built the Mykytynska Zaporizhia Sich in the Mykytyn Rih area, from which the town of Nikopol originates. In April 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytskyi was elected hetman at the Cossack Council at the Mykytynska Sich. He received the symbols of the Zaporizhia Army and started the liberation war from here, as well as the development of the Cossack State.

In the late 18th century and in the first half of the 19th century Nikopol developed as a trade and craft settlement. The first industrial enterprises emerged in the town in the second half of the 19th century. In 1897, the population of the town reached 8,100 people.

The development of the town was greatly boosted by the trade in bread, lard, wool, by manganese mining near Nikopol on the Solona River started in 1886, and the launch of the Kryvyi Rih – Nikopol – Oleksandrivsk railway service in 1903.

In the late 19th century, foreign entrepreneurs began to invest in Nikopol.

The first industrial enterprise in Nikopol was founded in 1885 by brothers Franz and Johann Karszewski, subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They bought an unoccupied land plot on the northern outskirts of the town and created a blacksmith workshop to repair agricultural machines.

In 1888, Austrian subject Karl Antonovych Stekel founded a brewery. His products were known far beyond the town. The Stekel Brewery was long considered one of the largest and most modern enterprises in the Katerynoslav Province.

Until 1941, one of the largest buildings in the town was a five-story automatic steam mill. It was built at the expense of merchant Yakiv Ivanovych Siemens, one of the German Mennonites. He chose the town of Nikopol as the site to build the mill as our town was a major grain trading centre. Siemens purchased a plot of land on the banks of the Dnipro River due to its convenient proximity to the freight railway. In 1910, he received a silver medal and the following year his flour was awarded a gold medal in Rome, and in 1912 – a gold award in moscow.

Economy and Welfare

The main industries in the town include the metallurgy industry, steel pipe industry and metal working.

The biggest companies are as follows:

– NIKOPOL FERROALLOY PLANT, PJSC (the key manufacturer of agglomerate, flux and ferroalloys in Ukraine, and European largest manufacturer of Ferromanganese (FeMn) and Ferrosilicomanganese (FeSiMn).

– INTERPIPE NIKO TUBE, LLC

(Ukrainian leading manufacturer of hot rolled seamless pipes in a wide range of sizes and steel grades with an emphasis on OCTG)

– CENTRAVIS PRODUCTION UKRAINE, PJSC (Ukrainian key manufacturer of seamless stainless steel tubes and pipes).

Nikopol small and medium-sized private companies manufacture the following materials and products: reinforced concrete, foam concrete, local building materials, bricks and pavers for sidewalks and pathways, plastic pipes, metal-plastic windows.

On 26 January 2018, a solar power plant with a capacity of 10.5 megawatts was put into commercial operation in the town of Nikopol.

The Nikopol solar power plant was built as part of the investment project of the Canadian energy company TIU Canada, the city of Calgary, on a 15-hectare municipal land plot.

This investment by Canadians was the first one within the framework of the Free Trade Area Agreement between Ukraine and Canada ratified on 14 March 2017.

The total amount of investments amounted to 10.5 million euros. This investment project implementation has brought great benefits to the local community: recognition of the investment appeal of Nikopol, revenues to the local budget generated by the rent for the use of a 15-hectare plot of land, creation of 25 new jobs and, of course, clean electricity for the residents and businesses of the town.

Community and War

Nikopol is one of the towns most affected by shelling in the Dnipropetrovsk Region. The russian army has been systematically shelling the town of Nikopol since 12 July 2022. The invaders are shelling the town from the other side of the Kakhovka Reservoir (distance 5 km), temporarily occupying the town of Enerhodar. The russians install their multiple rocket launchers in the territory of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which is less than 10 km away from the Nikopol waterfront.

Since the beginning of the shelling of the town, about 2,000 residential buildings, both private and blocks of flats, 7 medical institutions, 42 educational institutions, 210 industrial and commercial institutions have been damaged; 12 people have died and more than 90 were injured.

People of the Community

Oleksandr Saiuk is the mayor of Nikopol.

In late 2020, the construction of a sports pool continued in the town as part of the Major Construction program of the President of Ukraine (a declaration about the completion of construction works was made in early 2022). In 2021, the first stage of reconstruction of the town’s emergency medical care department was completed. Considerable attention was paid to the reconstruction of both the pedestrian and automobile road infrastructure of Nikopol. According to the 2021 results alone, more roads were repaired in the town’s private sector than over the last 10 years. The examples of milestone achievements include the modern pedestrian infrastructure development.

The reconstructed building of the art school, the town’s children’s hospital was opened, and a new sports hall was opened in one of the town’s schools.

As a result of the mayor’s efforts, international technical assistance projects are implemented in Nikopol in cooperation with leading European organizations:

• German International Cooperation Agency (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH)
• Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)
• European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative (EUACI)
• In October 2017, the community of the town of Nikopol became a member of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities, which was created by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), Hamburg, Germany.

In the times of difficult challenges as a consequence of the full-scale war of the russian federation against Ukraine, the mayor has implemented a number of measures aimed at ensuring the safety, stable and uninterrupted work of all the municipal services and enterprises. Since the outbreak of the war, the hotline of the Nikopol Town Council has been functioning in the town providing its residents with the necessary information that interests them. For example, what to do in case of damage to property caused by hostilities.

In order to help people whose homes were damaged due to shelling, a film and OSB plates are purchased from the town budget and distributed to the residents of Nikopol so that they could cover up their broken windows. Also, construction materials are donated by charitable organizations.

In addition, the roofs of more than 40 high-rise buildings in the town have been breached. Their restoration is very expensive and difficult, so these works are carried out at the expense of the town budget; construction materials are purchased and the work of a subcontractor is paid.

In order to help people in the event of a blackout, the town has 14 Invincibility Points and 2 Warming Points where one can recharge their phones and keep warm.

Development Strategy

The following conceptual and strategic documents are implemented in the town:

– Integrated Urban Development Concept – Nikopol 2035 with a Focus on Housing for Disadvantaged Groups

– Nikopol Development Strategy until 2027

– Strategy for the development of the social services provision system of the territorial community of Nikopol until 2027

– Strategy for the development of the healthcare system of the territorial community of Nikopol until 2027

List of Sources

• Website of the Nikopol Town Council
• Website of the Nikopol Local History Museum
• Datasheet of the Nikopol Territorial Community
• HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL LANDMARKS OF THE NIKOPOL DISTRICT (BASED ON THE MATERIALS OF A COLLECTION OF UKRAINE’S HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL LANDMARKS)
• Wikipedia

Photos:

• Photo 1-3 – photographer Ihor Kobelniuk
• Photo 8-9 – Press service of the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant
• Photo 10-11 – Interpipe Niko Tube
• Photo 12 – Centravis
• Photo 13-18, 23 – Press service of the Nikopol Town Council