A Vanishing World of Ukrainian villages

Photos are made by Viktoria Sorochynska

With each new year the map of Ukraine is getting empty. Villages which are left without inhabitants, first turn to ghosts, and then completely erase from the earth and public registries. Since independence, in Ukraine 641 settlements - 601 villages and 40 large towns have officially ceased to exist. Most of abandoned villages are in the Kiev region, where some residents have settled out after the Chernobyl accident in 1986. But enough of settlements are desolates in natural way: through the extinction of residents 528 settlements ceased to exist

 

"The problem with the extinction of the villages concerns to many countries where the focus is on industry". We have also, according to experts, the settlements disappeared due to demographic and social factors. "Young people are leaving because they needed work. And then no one returns to the village. So there are only old people.

Officials say that the tendency to stop villages dying can be. This requires territorial reform. Now the main problem in rural areas is poorly developed social sector. If there is more money to stay on the places, then the community will distribute and improve their living conditions. All we need is to carry out constitutional reform: The main point of reference - a reform of the main laws, and for its adoption should be two sessions of Parliament, that is - the year. But to really improve life in Ukrainian villages we will need more than a year, and at least 3-5 years. As an example, let's consider Poland, which faced a challenge of the extinction of the villages. They conducted government reform planned for 10 years. But we have no such time - the situation is really catastrophic...

Thanks for your attention to this post. Hope it will make you think of several improvements in social sector.