Will there be life in Blahodatne?

Blahodatne is a small village in the Pervomaisk community in Mykolaiv Oblast. Before the war, it was home to about 350 people. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, it became a transit point for the Russian invaders trying to take Mykolaiv and was located in the so-called gray zone. Every day, the residents of Blahodatne observed columns of military equipment moving toward the regional center. As early as mid-March, the Russians set up a checkpoint on the bridge over the Ingul Canal on the outskirts of the village and began to "visit" the locals. Around March 20, 2022, the "arrivals" in Blahodatne began: the Ukrainian military maneuvered and tried to push the Russians away from Mykolaiv, so the invaders fired at their positions, despite the fact that people lived nearby. At that time, there were more than a thousand people in the village-three times as many as before the war, because then the urban residents believed that it was safer in the village.

Not a single intact building remained in Blahodatne: about 180 housing units, a kindergarten, a church, and a village club were destroyed. But in November 2022, after the de-occupation of Kherson and the retreat of the invaders across the Dnipro, people began to return to their destroyed homes. They dismantle the rubble and remove unexploded ordnance from the wreckage with their own hands. Currently, 26 people live in Blahodatne. People have begun to build a new life on the wreckage of their old lives.

Ukrinform correspondents visited the destroyed village and learned from the locals what it was like to lose everything and risk their own lives to build a future from scratch.

THE VILLAGE WAS BURNING, BODIES WERE LYING ON THE STREETS

Our journey began in Mykolaiv, where we met our guide Dmytro Yeliseyenko. The guy was born and lived in Blahodatne before the full-scale invasion. He lost his friends, his home, and then partially his eyesight. When Blahodatne was reopened to the public in late November 2022, he was one of the first to return to the village to help the animals that remained there.

The road to Blahodatne goes through the neighboring village of Partyzanske. They wanted to allocate a plot of land here and build temporary houses for the residents of Blahodatne. But this idea did not satisfy the public. Firstly, the proposed land plot was a pig farm in Soviet times, so the soil had accumulated a lot of sewage. Secondly, people believe that in this way the authorities will remove the restoration of their Blahodatne from the agenda. However, some of the residents of Blahodatne have temporarily settled in Partyzanske, with relatives or friends.

We visit farmer Mykhailo Zveryshyn, a relative of Dmytro's. The man lives in his son's dilapidated house. His own house, along with agricultural machinery and harvested crops, burned down in Blahodatne at the beginning of the war. He miraculously survived and helped his neighbors evacuate from the shelling. Mykhailo cannot hold back his tears when he recalls the beginning of the great war.

- At first we were just scared. In Blahodatne, we gathered 2-3 families in a house and lived like that. We thought that everything was about to end, that such a horror could not last for a long time, that the world would react and put Russia in its place. Our village was not touched, the tanks were going to Mykolaiv. Then the invaders set up a checkpoint on the bridge over the Ingul Canal, and not everyone was allowed to pass through. Those who were considered suspicious for some reason were turned back. And they let me leave the village only with a pass: for example, I could go to my son in Partyzanske for 3 hours and no more. Russians also entered the village and scared the locals.

And when our people began to fight back and tried to push the Russians back, hell broke loose. The village was literally on fire. I saw the bodies of dead soldiers lying on the streets. Both ours and Russians. I saw my friend being torn to pieces by a shell. We lived in the basement for two weeks, waiting for the evacuation. But there was no evacuation. Then, after another merciless shelling, I could not stand it, I grabbed my wife and neighbors - I filled a car full of people and drove them out of the village. We ran away in the clothes we were wearing. The car was shelled on the way, but fortunately, we survived," says Mr. Mykhailo.

The man has been farming for 50 years. He went from a simple tractor driver to the head of two farms, "Valentyna" and "Iryna", which is more than 1,500 hectares of land outside of Blahodatne. Now, together with his family, he sows barley and sunflower on his son's land near Partyzanske.

- There were two combines, both of which were damaged. To repair the one that survived, we went into debt. There were 6 MTZ tractors, only two are left. We burned 200 tonnes of wheat and 250 tonnes of sunflower. I lost $2.5 million worth of equipment! And now try to get back up.... We are in such terrible debt, you can't even imagine. Now it's just me and my son working, and we have no money to pay the workers. For example, we have harvested the first 50 tonnes of barley this year, but we cannot sell it. We are waiting for the price to rise at least a little to break even. I'm not talking about profit," the farmer continues.

IT'S SCARY TO WORK, BUT YOU CAN'T LEAVE

I ask the owner if it's not scary to go out into the fields, because they haven't been demined. How can I leave everything behind? This is my life! Yes, it is scary. We were told by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES) that these fields near Partyzanske were not mined by the Russians because the village was not under occupation. They offered us to go around the fields on our own and look for explosives. If we found it, we should call the sappers. That's what we did. They responded quickly enough, came and took away the rocket or whatever was sticking out of the ground. But one day a disaster happened. While working in the field on a tractor, my relative Dmytro hit a mine. He survived, but suffered severe eye injuries," says Mr. Mykhailo and nods towards our guide.

Dmytro himself is standing near the wreckage of the tractor he was hit by in March 2023 during the sowing season.

Mr. Zveryshyn goes on to say that he dreams of returning to his native Blahodatne and rebuilding his home. He says that at a recent meeting of the village residents with representatives of the authorities, the Blahodatne residents defended their home and are still waiting for the construction of temporary small houses.

- While here in Partyzanske, the village council provides building materials for repairs, there is nothing to repair in Blahodatne. Almost all the houses have no walls left. What is there to hang that slate on? They just wanted to demolish our village and move it to a pig farm. And there is a meter of manure in the soil! We won't let them do that! People were outraged, and they promised us that they would build temporary outbuildings 8 by 4 meters from foam blocks. We will live in them and gradually rebuild our homes," says Mykhailo Zveryshyn.

We finish the coffee that the host bought us and get ready to go to Blahodatne. Dmytro jokes that we will drink coffee at his place as well. The joke is bitter: there is almost nothing left of the guy's house...

We were just getting into the car when a "delegation" of Partizanske residents approached us. People's attention was drawn to the inscription "Press" on the car. Everyone wants to be heard, to tell their terrible story and ask for some help. All the stories are different, but they are all permeated with the same pain of the horrors of war. Everyone asks - help us to restore the house.

WE WILL REBUILD EVERYTHING, JUST HELP US

Victoriia and her 3-year-old son, Ivan, returned to Partyzanske in April 2023. The woman says that their family was lucky because the walls of their destroyed house were still intact, so it can be repaired. According to Victoriia, volunteers come to the village and bring building materials. In particular, beams and slate.

- They brought us slate. But we don't know what to do next. We have the material, but we can't cover the roof. It costs 200 UAH to nail one slate, and we need almost 20,000 UAH for our roof. We have to live in a "trailer" (as the woman calls the tent provided by the village council for six months) in the garden," says Victoriia.

It is fiercely hot in the temporary house. It is almost impossible to breathe there. According to the woman, on sunny summer days, the temperature inside reaches 37 degrees. In April, Victoriia says, it was freezing.

Little Ivan is a little afraid of strangers and runs away to the big house. We follow the boy. The owners have already cleaned the house. Only the walls are left of the house.

- You should have seen the state of this house when we returned in April... We arrived just before Easter, on Maundy Thursday. And here everything was wet, everything was leaking... There was rubble as high as my height! We had to take everything apart ourselves... I cried so much when I saw it, I was on pills for three days! At first we lived in a shed, and then we were given this temporary house," says Victoriia.

According to the woman, she did not want to leave the village at all, even when fierce fighting was taking place nearby. She and her son evacuated to Odesa only on March 30, 2022.

- We stayed in a neighbor's basement. My grandmother and uncle were also with us. But on March 30, the neighbor was killed by shelling. Then my uncle forced me to leave. The kid had a hard time with the shelling. Now it's quiet, but he is scared to death of the air raid alarm. When we returned, he was the only child here, and now there will be twenty of them. You know, it was so scary when we came back! You thought, "Oh, my God, if you get sick, if you fall, no one will see. There were no people at all! In the summer, they started coming back... We even have a shop in the village now. And there is a medical center. The village is gradually coming back to life. And what is left for us? To travel to Europe? No. Our home is here. When the war is over, we will rebuild everything. We are hard-working people, we are not afraid of difficulties," says Victoriia.

In the car, I say that it is hard to imagine how people dare to live in such conditions. At this, our "guide" Dmytro smiles and advises me to wait for half an hour: "These are just flowers. You will see what is in Blahodatne."

GRAVES, RUINS AND MINES

On the outskirts of Blahodatne we see the grave of a soldier. Dmytro says that the locals used to bury Ukrainian soldiers near the village.

We buried our dead fellow villagers right in the village. Under an apricot tree, under an apple tree... So that relatives could exhume the remains and rebury them properly. And the military - outside the village," the man explained.

Dmytro asked us to stop for a minute and went over to the grave to put an apple. He said it was their tradition. Bowing his head, the man thanked the fallen soldier for his life.

The first house we encountered in Blahodatne belongs to Mykhailo Zveryshyn, a farmer we had just talked to in Partyzanske. We entered the garden and saw human-sized weeds, fragments of building materials and personal belongings. We go to the backyard, where the farmer had a granary and a shed with agricultural machinery. Dmytro sternly emphasizes that we should follow him step by step, because there may be unexploded explosives under the rubble. Black pebbles crunch underfoot; we look closely and realize that we are walking on burnt grain... Indeed, everything Mr. Mykhailo had earned for half a century was destroyed. Not a single stone was left of his house, and his equipment was completely destroyed.

Then we go on foot for a "tour" of the village. There are still shell tails sticking out of the broken asphalt. According to Dmytro, most of these "surprises" have already been removed by the locals, who started returning to the village in late November last year.

The first "Robinsons" were two men. They had no other place to live, so they decided to return to the ruins of their own homes. They looked after the remnants of the machinery of the farmers who had cultivated the fields near the village before the war, and the owners of the machinery brought them food. In the spring of 2023, about 40 residents returned to Blahodatne.

The hardest part, Dmytro says, was the lack of any help from the local authorities.

- "Representatives of the Amalgamated territorial communities (ATCs) came, took pictures in front of the ruins and left. The houses don't even have walls, and nothing can be restored. Slate and beams brought to other villages will not help us. The village is 100 percent destroyed. I am very sorry when I see on TV stories about the restoration of Bucha and Irpen. Many wealthy people lived there, and they can take care of themselves. But we can't. Understand, I am glad that people are being helped, but we are also people and need help," says Dmitry.

We pass a bus stop. The iron structure now looks like a colander, with many bullet holes in the walls and ceiling. Before the war, this bus stop was used to take children to school in a neighboring village. In Blahodatne itself, there was only an elementary school, sharing a building with a kindergarten.

We also decided to take a look at this ruined institution. Without a roof, with partially collapsed walls and fragments of expensive furniture - this is how the place where the kids were taught now looks like. A rope still hangs from the brand new wall bars in the former gym. There is a huge hole in the wall opposite. In the music room, a folder with CDs lies on the floor among the garbage - they contain classical music and fairy tales. We go further into the bedroom and see a room scale on the floor. Dmytro warns us loudly: "Do not stand on it! It could be a hidden explosive, which the Russians have left here." We leave the school very carefully, because we realize that our guide is not joking now.

We are walking through the streets of a broken village. Despite the fact that this is not our first "expedition" to frontline communities, we are horrified to see the scale of destruction, we have never seen anything like it.

- Dmytro, how do people live here?

AT LEAST TWO ROOMS, SO THAT WE HAVE A PLACE TO LIVE UNTIL WE DIE.

Dmytro takes us to the house of his aunt Svitlana. Together with her husband, Oleksandr, she is trying to put her house in order. During the day, the couple clears the rubble from the house and the surrounding area. At night, the pensioners sleep in their car. Near the fence, we see shells laid out in a row - these are today's "finds".

- I was cleaning the rubble near the chicken coop. I opened the door. And there was this doll lying there! My arms and legs were shaking! I said, "Sasha, save it! And he answered me, saying, "I made a mess, it's nothing so bad," the woman shows.

Oleksandr boasts that he can carry a shell in his hands again "for the press". For a good shot. But he does not know if the dangerous object will explode. So we unanimously dissuade the desperate man from such fun.

- We are clearing the rubble ourselves. What are we waiting for? It's been eight months since the village was liberated, and no one is doing anything. No one is demining! The village headman told us that it would take 5-6 years to clear our village of mines, and that nothing would be done until then. They promised us reconstruction according to European standards, but everything has stalled. We would like at least two rooms to be built here! We're pensioners, we can't do it ourselves. Two rooms and that's it. We don't need much to live out our lives! At least they give us building materials in Partyzanske. But it's easier there, you can cover the roof. And we have nothing to cover. Everything is burned. Not a bowl or a spoon is left. This is a farming village! We will not let it be destroyed. We were temporarily offered to go to Partyzanske. But we don't want to go there. We applied for the restoration of our home. We filled out an act for the destroyed property. Now the commission has to assess how much the house was damaged. But when will the commission arrive? Many people in the village have no documents at all, so they will most likely not be compensated for anything," says Svitlana.

She and her husband left the village in the first days of April 2022. The woman suffers from asthma, and when her medication ran out, she had to leave.

- The Russians were standing under the bridge on the outskirts. It was terrifying here. At six in the morning, the shelling started - it was like "good morning." At 12 a.m., it was like good night. I got up at 4 a.m. to milk the cows to be in time for the shelling. We spent almost all the time in the basement, there were 8 of us. My nephew was with us, he was 10 years old. One day a Ukrainian soldier came running to us and told us to close up because the Russians had entered the village. We hid and sat quietly. We heard a tank approaching, then the cellar door opened and the "orcs" threw a brick. "Catch, grenade!" We started screaming: let us out, there are children here! Then one Russian came down to the cellar and asked if we had any military with us. Then they kicked all of us outside and started interrogating us. They asked where the 'nationalists' were hiding. Having learned nothing, they let us go back to the cellar. And then there was shelling all night, we sat with icons and prayed. When we went up to the yard in the morning, the house was gone," the woman recalls one of the last nights in the village.

Svitlana and Oleksandr returned to Blahodatne in April 2023. They received a folding bed for two from the village council. The couple jokes that they will probably take turns sleeping now.

- "We can't get humanitarian aid either, it seems like we're begging. They say to register through Facebook. But I'm a pensioner, I don't understand how to do that! Can't you just call and tell me where and when to come? Everything burned down, we have no cups or spoons left, and we can't buy anything. Oleksandr's pension is UAH 2.500, and I don't get it at all because I don't have enough seniority. All our lives we have never asked anyone for anything and relied only on ourselves. And now we don't know what to hope for," the woman complains.

While we are talking, our guide Dmytro is scattering dry food for animals near the houses. After all, if no one cares about people, what about the four-legged ones?

We say goodbye to Dmytro's relatives and go on to his house. The guy once again took a carrier with him, as he still hopes to find his cat, which he was unable to take with him the day he left the village.

- Write about us so that we do not forget. We have been left to our fate. Help us," we hear Ms. Svitlana's words after us.

A MOUNTAIN OF RUBBLE AND A SCARECROW AS AN IMITATION OF LIFE

On the way to Dmytro's house, we turn into another yard. Viktor, the boy's neighbor, is buried here. The grave is covered with slate and has a homemade cross on it. The deceased had no relatives, so no one is concerned about exhuming the remains for civilian burial. Dmytro also puts an apple on his grave.

- He was hiding here with other neighbors. The Ukrainian military came to help them evacuate. Uncle Vitya helped them carry his old grandmother to the car, and when he returned to get his grandfather, a shell exploded next to him. That's where he died. He was buried in this place. He was a good uncle," Dmytro says with regret.

Across the yard from the victim's house is Dmytro's house. All that remains of it is a pile of rubble. In the front garden, we also see an "exhibition" of shells. Dmytro tells us that this one is from a Grad, and this one is from an 80-mm MLRS.

At the entrance to the basement, the guy has set up a homemade scarecrow, he says, some kind of imitation of life.

- I was one of the first to return to the village. I was here, I saw the ruins of the house where I was born and raised. But it was like a dream. Luckily, my helmet was equipped with a camera, so I later watched the video and realized what I had seen to the fullest. I've seen a lot of other people's grief, but when it's yours, you can't put it into words," says Dmytro.

The prospect of restoring his house is also vague. The house belonged to his late father, but the documents were not reissued in time.

- "I don't know if my mother and I can count on anything," Dmytro says sadly.

IT WILL TAKE AT LEAST FIVE YEARS TO REBUILD

Shocked by what we had seen and heard, we contacted Maksym Korovai, the head of the military administration of the Pervomaisk community, which includes Blahodatne. We asked the official to explain whether the villagers were really offered to move to the territory of the former pigsties, whether the village was being demined, and what was really waiting for Blahodatne - final destruction or reconstruction according to European standards?

According to Korovai, the village has been demining since the end of November 2022.

- Sapper teams are working and conducting humanitarian demining. Norwegian People's Aid, in particular "HALO Trust", our local and regional departments of the State Emergency Service, units from other regions are all working and demining. First, we cleared the roads, then, after people applied, we cleared residential buildings and household plots. If people find a shell in their garden or field, they submit a request for demining. A team arrives, and the explosives are taken away or neutralized on the spot," said the head of the Pervomaisk military administration.

So far, 26 people have returned to the village, and, according to the official, 50 more are planning to return by winter.

- "Today, as a military administration, we have enlisted the support of the regional military administration (RMA) and are doing everything possible to speed up the demining of Blahodatne, build temporary 8-by-4-meter living quarters for people and equip them with stoves by winter. We will provide people with warm clothes, beds or cots, mattresses and blankets," said Korovai.

Regarding the proposal to build temporary houses for Blahodatsk residents on the territory of former farms in Partyzanske, the head of the administration explained that the soil on the land allocated for the houses is being tested.

- No official, no leader of any level will take on such obligations and build houses, so to speak, in a cemetery. That's why we are now conducting geodesy and geology. Our partners are working on this project. Of course, we will take soil samples. If it does not meet the requirements and there is at least a minimal risk to human life and health, then, of course, no one will force anyone to move," Korovai emphasized.

The official also added that the main reason why people do not want to move to Partyzanske is that most of them are farmers and have leased land in Blahodatne.

- Therefore, I understand perfectly well why their position is approached from this angle and why they complain about the military administration," said Maksym Korovai.

As for the disappearance of the village, he assures that this will not happen. According to him, the project to rebuild the village is now being discussed with the regional military administration and international charitable organizations.

- "My main task is to preserve 11 settlements in the district. I have no plans to destroy the village, because I come from there. Of course, it will not be possible to preserve Blahodatne in the form it was before the war. But we want to return people, local businesses, and farmers there as much as possible. But it will take time. It will take at least 5 years," the official said.

Finally, it should be noted that most of the residents of Blahodatne are pensioners. And they may not have "at least 5 years". At the same time, we understand that the front line is now quite close to Blahodatne and it is too early to talk about full reconstruction.

Hanna Bodrova, Odesa

Photo by Nina Lyashonok

The material was written with the support of the NGO "Institute of Mass Information", which implements the project "Support for Active Citizens under Pressure in Ukraine" with the financial assistance of the European Union