“The occupiers came in – there was horror.” Will life return to uninhabited and mined Bezymenne in the Mykolaiv Oblast?

During two and a half years of full-scale war, the village of Bezimenne turned into a completely deserted and most mined area of ​​the Mykolaiv region.

According to local residents, electricity, water and other benefits of civilization disappeared in the village as soon as the Russian invaders entered.

“It was both fear and horror. There wasn’t a moment when we weren’t buzzing, or when a plane wasn’t flying over us. We couldn’t even leave the house, because we were afraid there.”

How are the freed communities of the Mykolaiv Oblast living two years after the deoccupation? What do local residents remember about the period of Russian occupation? Which settlements are actively being restored, and which remain completely destroyed? About this in the material of the Radio Liberty project “News of Azov Region”

Beymenne is located in the Sniguriv community on the border of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. The front line passed by the village, and you can still come across the remains of trenches and dugouts there.

Currently, not a single person lives in the village, and the prospects of returning there are small. In the settlement, not only residential buildings were destroyed, but also the entire infrastructure: communications, water supply and roads.

“News of Pryazovya” visited the Tamarinsk Starostyn district, to which the village belongs and where some of its residents now live. The head of the district Olga Kuhar said that before the full-scale invasion, 52 people lived in Nameless.

“They all lived together like one family. They themselves told many times, and we saw that if someone was in trouble or trouble, then everyone came to help in a friendly manner, as a whole village. People lived there in harmony. Whether it was a fun event or something else, everything was like one big family. Today it is completely destroyed, there is not a single surviving building. Everything has been completely destroyed there, there is nothing alive at all, the water towers have been smashed through. Everything is in ruins and pits,” she said.

“There is a desire to return”

The village of Bezimenne is one of the most mined in Mykolaiv Oblast, says the head of the district. Mine clearance specialists are currently working there. Local residents would like to return to Nameless, however, this is unlikely to be possible, Kuhar added.

“Some people live here in the Snigurivska community, some directly in the village of Tamarine, some in Mykolaiv, some abroad, some in the west of Ukraine. As of today, those who had their house documents in order have issued certificates and are awaiting reconstruction. I think that this story will never end for them. They all want to go home. One of the residents of Bezymenny came here immediately after the deoccupation. They were one of the first to return and stay with us. And she once came to me and said: “You have no idea how much I want to go home.” Eyes full of tears. And people understand that they will not return there, but the desire to return, I think, will remain with them forever,” the woman shared.

No hope of recovery

Olga Aksentiy – a resident of the village of Bezimenne. She said that she left the occupation in July 2022. At that time, there was no communication in the village, heavy fighting was going on near the settlement.

“It was both fear and horror. We didn’t have such a moment that it didn’t rain, that a plane didn’t fly over us. There was horror. This is how the occupiers entered, there was no water, no electricity. We sat without bread at all. After a while, the guys started leaving to fill up the gas cylinders. Stoves were built by themselves in the yards, food was cooked, bread was baked, whoever had what – shared it. We couldn’t even leave the house, because we were afraid there“, the woman recalls.

Local residents tried not to communicate with the Russian military when they occupied the village, says Olga Aksentiy.

“I personally did not leave the yard, we were afraid. White ribbons were worn if we had to go somewhere. We were, of course, frightened, afraid, I personally was afraid and the neighbors were afraid, we were afraid to go out. That’s why we sat more in the yards. And they came in silently and immediately asked for homemade sour cream. And then they started killing and eating chickens and geese. They didn’t even ask us for any permission. We hear bang-bang, that’s it, the geese are killed, the chickens are killed. We quickly gave the remaining milk to the pigs so that they did not see it and did not take it away. Straw was taken from us in the trenches for bedding. They entered my house silently, took away pillows, men’s socks, and underwear. One of our women died. She went to milk the cows and it broke. People were there until the end, hoping for something,” the resident said.

The woman says that she would like to return home, but understands that the village is unlikely to be rebuilt: “We ourselves know that we will probably not return there. I would like to, of course, I would like to. Everything is native. For the second time, my husband does not want to take me there. It’s scary, people are being blown up. The land is cultivated and blown up.”

The editors cannot independently verify and confirm the testimony that took place in the territories that were under occupation and in the war zone.

Restoration of Novopetrivka

Almost two years ago, the Ukrainian military liberated 150 settlements in the Mykolaiv region from occupation. Since then, the region has been recovering. Currently, the Kinburn spit remains under the control of the Russian military. At the same time, some settlements of the Mykolaiv Oblast continue to suffer from shelling.

The village is one of the settlements of the Mykolaiv Oblast that is currently being rebuilt Novopetrivka. It belongs to the Shirokiv community. The village survived 8 months of occupation and was close to the front line for a long time. Local residents call that period “horror” and recall cases of looting, torture and murder.

Nadia Mykarchan, a resident of Novopetrivka, says:

“They (the occupiers) mainly questioned who served where and who is currently serving. Those who did not want to reveal this information were tortured – tied to the Cross in our village and tortured. One did not survive, he was found already after the deoccupation, he was sitting in the basement, they buried him in a pit there, and then reburied him. Yet one man was found murdered in a field outside the village, the husband of our headman was also tortured to death. There were boys who were taken to Kherson were taken away, or taken to Kakhovka and interrogated.”

Valentina Kasapa, head of the Novopetriv district:

“They (occupiers) entered, people were afraid of them. They entered, each with two or three assault rifles slung over their shoulders and an assault rifle in their hands. They did not substantiate it with anything. They just collected it, someone told them something there, that someone there was transmitting data about the movement of their equipment. There was someone in the village who was friends with the ATOshniks, they the boys were simply rounded up and abused. My husband was also tortured. They said he is from Banderabecause he comes from the west of Ukraine“.

Now Novopetrivka is gradually coming back to life. The headman says that the village is being restored and local residents are returning there. According to her, the school has already been restored, the bomb shelter is being repaired, the project for the village’s centralized water supply has been completed, wells are being built.

“Our farm has resumed work. And in order for people to live more comfortably, we have entrepreneurs who have opened stores with food and building materials. There is a school, a boarding school, a gymnasium on the basis of a high school – it works online so far, but soon it will be a mixed form,” added the headmaster.

“Unpleasant surprises of the occupiers”

Landmines are still a problem in Novopetrivka, as well as in other communities affected by war and occupation. Local residents say that there are still many dangerous places around the village.

“We were left with a lot of unpleasant surprises. There were cases when a child died. Well, children are children, no matter how much you tell them, but curiosity prevails. They crossed over to the other side of the channel, and what were they going there, what were they looking for, but one boy stepped on or picked up an anti-personnel mine, it exploded in his hands. That boy died on the spotand the second child, who was nearby, remained disabled“, – a resident of the village told “News of Pryazovya”. Lyudmila Huts.

According to her, other accidents related to mining occurred when the road had already been opened and the train to Mykolaiv had started to run.

“People were going to the train and the woman just like that took a step to the side, I’m looking, she says, something is shining, and it was a stretch mark. A miracle did not happen. But just recently, a woman led a cow to the canal, tied a rope, it was only a few steps, moved aside, when the cow stepped on some explosive object, that’s all, the cow was torn apart. The woman miraculously survived. There were a lot of dugouts dug by them (the occupiers) under the canal, they dug through the whole earth like moles. And to this day, there are still so many mines that you can’t even approach the forest strip,” the woman shared.

Mykolaiv Oblast is one of the most difficult regions for demining, the head of the board of the Association of Sappers of Ukraine told “News of Priazovya” Timur Pistryuga. There you can find a variety of explosive items – from unexploded ammunition to anti-personnel and anti-tank mines.

“Mykolaiv region, Kherson region, Kharkiv region and the territories of Donetsk region accessible for demining, they have the most difficult situation, from the point of view of pollution, from the point of view of incidents and victims, as well as the difficulty of the work, if we are talking about the implementation of humanitarian demining tasks. One of the key statistics for us is the number of mine incidents and casualties due to mine incidents. Mykolaiv Oblast is in third place after Kharkiv Oblast and Kherson Oblast. 90 incidents were officially recorded, which is somewhere over 12% of the total number that happened in Ukraine in all regions, and in Kyiv region, Chernihiv region, and Sumy region, where we have mine problems. This is quite a significant indicator, because in fact it is an official statistic, but the real numbers are much higher,” he noted.

Most of the areas that are available for demining can be made safe within 10 years, the sapper believes.

“By 10 years, we must clear 80% of the territory available for demining. That is, it is something that is de-occupied at the moment and is not included in the 20-kilometer buffer zone, it must be demined, and I believe in these numbers,” Pestryuga added.

• The Sniguriv community is one of those that were under occupation. According to local mass media, 70% of houses, 45% of preschool and general secondary education institutions, 30% of culture centers and rural libraries, and 25% of health care facilities were damaged during the occupation and active hostilities. In addition, 100% of the fields and rural communication roads were mined, as well as destroyed bridges and pedestrian crossings connecting settlements across the Ingulets River.
• Russia’s large-scale military invasion of Ukraine has been ongoing since the morning of February 24, 2022. Russia denies that it is waging a war of aggression against Ukraine and calls it a “special operation.” The Russian authorities also deny that they are committing crimes against civilian residents of Ukraine.