We publish below a translation of an article by the Ukrainian anarchist
group Assembly about recent environmental struggles. Please excuse any
errors in translation. ---- The state-owned Oktyabrsky Forestry
Enterprise is destroying the nature of Zhykhar for a private quarry that
leases the land. Hello to those who say that we just need to nationalise
all natural resources - and we'll live like that! ---- All over the
world, grassroots activist communities are standing in the way of the
plunder and devastation of living space by wild, predatory capitalism.
Sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much. And even in a half-empty
city 20 km from the front line, where half of the remaining population
tries not to go outside, there are still some opportunities to
demonstrate community power.
As Assembly has already written, the pine forest of Zhykhar, although it
was artificially planted during the USSR as a plantation for timber
harvesting, has an important environmental status . In pursuance of the
Berne Convention, which Ukraine signed and ratified back in 1996, the
territory of the Zhykhar Forest was declared by the state to be part of
the Emerald Network of Europe, that is, classified as lands subject to
protection for the restoration of the nature of the entire continent.
The network unites about 4 thousand natural objects in 24 European
countries; Ukraine finally joined the project in 2020 and included 377
locations (including territories occupied by the Russian Federation).
The goal of the project is to preserve rare species of flora and fauna
in places of permanent residence and along migration routes. As one of
these places on the route of seasonal migration of birds and insects,
the Zhykhar forest is included in the environmental protection zone
under number UA0000295 - "Lower part of the Udy River valley." In
addition, according to a report from the Council of Europe two years
ago, it has a fairly high biodiversity: at least 11 species of birds and
three species of other animals live here. But even after the first rally
this year against the cutting down of 11 hectares for sand mining ,
which took place on Sunday, June 9, those who have their eyes on it do
not abandon their plans.
The day before yesterday we were sent a report on assessing the impact
of the development of the Osnovyanskoye field on the environment,
confirming that the batch of trees cut down three weeks ago was not the
work of some visiting bandits from the highway, but an official activity
coordinated at the Kyiv level. Co-organiser of the protests Svetlana
Kuraksina says that an investigation is currently underway into how
permission was obtained to cut down forest resources that are not
excluded from the recreational category, local residents monitor the
forest during the day, and police patrols monitor the forest in the
evening and at night:
20240620_223209 Download
The second action against the transformation of the green zone into a
pit took place on Saturday, June 14. There was a counter-protest nearby,
where workers and managers of Zavod KhSM LLC came out, demanding to
"save jobs." On June 16, protesters met with the mayor and management of
the Osnovyansky district. According to forest defenders, the
administration promised that if the plant does not find a compromise
with people, the city will stop mining and logging.
"I think so, maybe the owners thought that no one cared about the
forest, that there was war, people were flowing in, and there was no
time for protests, but not about the Kharkiv residents . This forest is
still alive only for people who want to talk about it and talk about it,
because it's too close, it's easy to take it away, " Artem Prikhodko,
the organiser of the pre-war "Clean Udy" campaign for public cleaning of
the river, comments on his Instagram. " Skoda, the local media and
newspapersignored this mass protest... Journalists have already been
called, they don't even want to show it."
"Zavod KhSM", whose main activity according to the KVED is the
production of concrete products for construction, has come to our
attention not for the first time. Last summer, the following review was
published: "I categorically do not recommend working in this quack
company, I read a bunch of negative reviews, but still believed the
words of an adult and seemingly respectable business owner. Sergey
Viktorovich promised a salary of at least equivalent at the rate of 1000
USD, a reservation without passing the VLK, in the future a seat on the
board of directors, etc. In fact, the concept of a reservation in the
quack enterprise does not exist at all, no one even hinted at the days
worked, draw your own conclusions, in 2-3 months I was the 5th in a row
for this position and so on for any vacancies, a brother, matchmaker,
friend, etc. is constantly working ." Now, as we can see, the company is
also actively looking for personnel:
When asked by our journalist what the urgent recruitment was connected
with and whether they would still go to rallies, the author of the ad
commented: "Good day, we always post the most in-demand vacancies, this
is not connected with expanding the number of staff, but rather with the
situation as a whole. Regarding the rally, if necessary, of course, we
will still go out for our plant and our workplaces; and most of the
local residents work for us." Natalya did not answer whether this
"situation as a whole" meant that many workers quit due to mobilisation.
According to the financial statements of HSM, its business is on the
rise: for 2023, net profit in the amount of 10,148,000 hryvnia against
-2,145,000 hryvnia in 2022. That is, they are not making ends meet, but
are trying to exceed the indicators of 2020 (when they made 11,986,000
UAH of net profit). This is data from the Opendatabot service. Appetite
comes with eating.
"Demands have increased. The quarry has been developed for a long time.
But as long as it didn't affect people or houses so closely, the
Zhikhory residents tolerated it. Now the situation has become critical.
People were outraged. In the 80s, entire streets were flooded. People
were then given apartments on Rogan. Maybe they would do the same now,
but I really doubt it. And in general, it is very difficult for people
who live in the private sector to live in an apartment. Here we have our
own standards for one person (how many you build, everything is yours),
and sheds, garages, cellars. But there is nothing of this in the
apartment," resident Elena Shulichenko complains in the Zhykhar Telegram
chat. "Those who are younger no longer know that there was also a small
lake near the kindergarten on Kariernaya. For a teenager, the deepest
depth was waist deep. When we were kids, we swam there in the summer and
caught tadpoles. In winter we went ice skating. With the arrival of new
equipment on the dredge, or uncontrolled sand mining, this lake
disappeared."
"On Tomskaya, right next to the lake, my family lived, their city is
already collapsing, because all the trees were cut down, and the sand is
just flowing down, " Anna Ostrovskaya answers her there. " A few more
rocks, and their houses will fall into the quarry."
The owner of the HSM plant, the beneficiary of the Kharkov Construction
Materials corporation and Quarry Osnova LLC, as well as the former
director of the mentioned corporation, is Sergey Viktorovich
Khoroshailov. In fact, we can talk about one company consisting of
several legal entities. He also controls a number of other companies. In
the pre-war investigation about the coast of the Pechenezh Reservoir,
Khoroshailov was also credited with several houses at the dismantled
Zaliv recreation center:
"Because of this, Serhiy Khoroshailov became the founder of the League
of Entrepreneurs of Kharkiv Region in 1998. Also a person with such a
PIB was an assistant to deputies: Ribakov Igor Oleksandrovych (Yulia
Tymoshenko Bloc) and Girshfeld Anatoliy Musiyovych, 4 meetings,
self-appointed.[...]The Kharikiv Building Materials Corporation was
founded in 2002 and was the largest producer of hollow-core slabs,
silicate and ceramic aggregates, ready-mixed concrete, cement and
foam-food mortars, and aerated concrete in the region.
Yesterday, about 20 people had a Saturday picnic in the forest - they
cooked porridge, ate ice cream, and relaxed. Just to show the plant that
they care and that they won't wait for silence. The only poster lay on
the ground. There were no representatives of KSM. The Assembly is
monitoring the situation further.
Meanwhile, the Kharkov fisheries patrol on the morning of June 11
recorded a death of fish in Udy near the Zhykhar dam. According to their
report, dead fish were concentrated in clusters along the shore; a total
of 511 were counted: roach, pike, perch, carp, carp, catfish, flatfish
and other species. In addition, you can see that the corpses of at least
two birds were found on the garbage catcher, and the number of dead fish
fry is generally unknown:
Environmental disaster does not come alone. There is currently no
information about the guilty company
Publication from Artem Prikhodko | Volunteer-Ecoactivist | For people
like people (@artprykhodko)
It's hard to surprise anyone with the poisoning of rivers in Kharkov. A
month before the big war, state television reported the death of almost
one and a half dozen wild ducks and drakes on Udy. The authorities
promised to look into it, but since then, as they say, things have not
been the same
Tatyana Pavlyuk recently shared on the Facebook page of environmental
activist Irina Kravchenko: "I would like to tell you how alive Pisochin
is, especially the Mobil microdistrict with an industrial zone from all
sides and the villages of Nadtochi. Podverki (Dergachiv community), one
plant Swiss Krono produces what, and also dumps it into the small river
Kuryazhanka, which flows into the river Udivische TEC-5. Because just at
the front of the city there is nothing and there is nothing to worry
about, besides the local ones. The state authorities do not study
anything and do not react to the brutalisation of the ncitizens of the
community. Organs that would not exist and nothing would change, besides
the huge amounts of savings on their salaries. If all the residents
realise that they can sit for their money, then taxes, and start feeding
about their lives, then maybe they can change, or not. There's not much
more to it." Who was responsible for the February environmental disaster
with the oil depot in the Nemyshlyansky district is also a rhetorical
question. It's good if at least those reading our magazine still
remember it.
And what is most interesting is that in a city with such an attitude of
the majority towards environmental problems, just as many consider
Africans, Indians and other dark-skinned people to be savages and
subhumans who are supposedly incapable of living except in dirt and
garbage. And they are even seriously indignant that after the war
Ukraine will supposedly be populated by migrants from southern
countries. Year after year they themselves demonstrate what they are so
afraid of.
Finally, let's add that the Assembly previously talked about the
country's first garbage catcher, installed by volunteers in Udy, which
caught tens of tons of trash in the first year of operation .
In addition, we showed what a practically dead pine forest on Saltovka
looks like, and also looked into the reasons for its death .
Original article in Ukrainian:
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2024/06/26/poisoned-rivers-bare-banks-how-the-kharkov-construction-materials-plant-is-fighting-with-the-community-for-control-over-the-environmental-protection-zone/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
group Assembly about recent environmental struggles. Please excuse any
errors in translation. ---- The state-owned Oktyabrsky Forestry
Enterprise is destroying the nature of Zhykhar for a private quarry that
leases the land. Hello to those who say that we just need to nationalise
all natural resources - and we'll live like that! ---- All over the
world, grassroots activist communities are standing in the way of the
plunder and devastation of living space by wild, predatory capitalism.
Sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much. And even in a half-empty
city 20 km from the front line, where half of the remaining population
tries not to go outside, there are still some opportunities to
demonstrate community power.
As Assembly has already written, the pine forest of Zhykhar, although it
was artificially planted during the USSR as a plantation for timber
harvesting, has an important environmental status . In pursuance of the
Berne Convention, which Ukraine signed and ratified back in 1996, the
territory of the Zhykhar Forest was declared by the state to be part of
the Emerald Network of Europe, that is, classified as lands subject to
protection for the restoration of the nature of the entire continent.
The network unites about 4 thousand natural objects in 24 European
countries; Ukraine finally joined the project in 2020 and included 377
locations (including territories occupied by the Russian Federation).
The goal of the project is to preserve rare species of flora and fauna
in places of permanent residence and along migration routes. As one of
these places on the route of seasonal migration of birds and insects,
the Zhykhar forest is included in the environmental protection zone
under number UA0000295 - "Lower part of the Udy River valley." In
addition, according to a report from the Council of Europe two years
ago, it has a fairly high biodiversity: at least 11 species of birds and
three species of other animals live here. But even after the first rally
this year against the cutting down of 11 hectares for sand mining ,
which took place on Sunday, June 9, those who have their eyes on it do
not abandon their plans.
The day before yesterday we were sent a report on assessing the impact
of the development of the Osnovyanskoye field on the environment,
confirming that the batch of trees cut down three weeks ago was not the
work of some visiting bandits from the highway, but an official activity
coordinated at the Kyiv level. Co-organiser of the protests Svetlana
Kuraksina says that an investigation is currently underway into how
permission was obtained to cut down forest resources that are not
excluded from the recreational category, local residents monitor the
forest during the day, and police patrols monitor the forest in the
evening and at night:
20240620_223209 Download
The second action against the transformation of the green zone into a
pit took place on Saturday, June 14. There was a counter-protest nearby,
where workers and managers of Zavod KhSM LLC came out, demanding to
"save jobs." On June 16, protesters met with the mayor and management of
the Osnovyansky district. According to forest defenders, the
administration promised that if the plant does not find a compromise
with people, the city will stop mining and logging.
"I think so, maybe the owners thought that no one cared about the
forest, that there was war, people were flowing in, and there was no
time for protests, but not about the Kharkiv residents . This forest is
still alive only for people who want to talk about it and talk about it,
because it's too close, it's easy to take it away, " Artem Prikhodko,
the organiser of the pre-war "Clean Udy" campaign for public cleaning of
the river, comments on his Instagram. " Skoda, the local media and
newspapersignored this mass protest... Journalists have already been
called, they don't even want to show it."
"Zavod KhSM", whose main activity according to the KVED is the
production of concrete products for construction, has come to our
attention not for the first time. Last summer, the following review was
published: "I categorically do not recommend working in this quack
company, I read a bunch of negative reviews, but still believed the
words of an adult and seemingly respectable business owner. Sergey
Viktorovich promised a salary of at least equivalent at the rate of 1000
USD, a reservation without passing the VLK, in the future a seat on the
board of directors, etc. In fact, the concept of a reservation in the
quack enterprise does not exist at all, no one even hinted at the days
worked, draw your own conclusions, in 2-3 months I was the 5th in a row
for this position and so on for any vacancies, a brother, matchmaker,
friend, etc. is constantly working ." Now, as we can see, the company is
also actively looking for personnel:
When asked by our journalist what the urgent recruitment was connected
with and whether they would still go to rallies, the author of the ad
commented: "Good day, we always post the most in-demand vacancies, this
is not connected with expanding the number of staff, but rather with the
situation as a whole. Regarding the rally, if necessary, of course, we
will still go out for our plant and our workplaces; and most of the
local residents work for us." Natalya did not answer whether this
"situation as a whole" meant that many workers quit due to mobilisation.
According to the financial statements of HSM, its business is on the
rise: for 2023, net profit in the amount of 10,148,000 hryvnia against
-2,145,000 hryvnia in 2022. That is, they are not making ends meet, but
are trying to exceed the indicators of 2020 (when they made 11,986,000
UAH of net profit). This is data from the Opendatabot service. Appetite
comes with eating.
"Demands have increased. The quarry has been developed for a long time.
But as long as it didn't affect people or houses so closely, the
Zhikhory residents tolerated it. Now the situation has become critical.
People were outraged. In the 80s, entire streets were flooded. People
were then given apartments on Rogan. Maybe they would do the same now,
but I really doubt it. And in general, it is very difficult for people
who live in the private sector to live in an apartment. Here we have our
own standards for one person (how many you build, everything is yours),
and sheds, garages, cellars. But there is nothing of this in the
apartment," resident Elena Shulichenko complains in the Zhykhar Telegram
chat. "Those who are younger no longer know that there was also a small
lake near the kindergarten on Kariernaya. For a teenager, the deepest
depth was waist deep. When we were kids, we swam there in the summer and
caught tadpoles. In winter we went ice skating. With the arrival of new
equipment on the dredge, or uncontrolled sand mining, this lake
disappeared."
"On Tomskaya, right next to the lake, my family lived, their city is
already collapsing, because all the trees were cut down, and the sand is
just flowing down, " Anna Ostrovskaya answers her there. " A few more
rocks, and their houses will fall into the quarry."
The owner of the HSM plant, the beneficiary of the Kharkov Construction
Materials corporation and Quarry Osnova LLC, as well as the former
director of the mentioned corporation, is Sergey Viktorovich
Khoroshailov. In fact, we can talk about one company consisting of
several legal entities. He also controls a number of other companies. In
the pre-war investigation about the coast of the Pechenezh Reservoir,
Khoroshailov was also credited with several houses at the dismantled
Zaliv recreation center:
"Because of this, Serhiy Khoroshailov became the founder of the League
of Entrepreneurs of Kharkiv Region in 1998. Also a person with such a
PIB was an assistant to deputies: Ribakov Igor Oleksandrovych (Yulia
Tymoshenko Bloc) and Girshfeld Anatoliy Musiyovych, 4 meetings,
self-appointed.[...]The Kharikiv Building Materials Corporation was
founded in 2002 and was the largest producer of hollow-core slabs,
silicate and ceramic aggregates, ready-mixed concrete, cement and
foam-food mortars, and aerated concrete in the region.
Yesterday, about 20 people had a Saturday picnic in the forest - they
cooked porridge, ate ice cream, and relaxed. Just to show the plant that
they care and that they won't wait for silence. The only poster lay on
the ground. There were no representatives of KSM. The Assembly is
monitoring the situation further.
Meanwhile, the Kharkov fisheries patrol on the morning of June 11
recorded a death of fish in Udy near the Zhykhar dam. According to their
report, dead fish were concentrated in clusters along the shore; a total
of 511 were counted: roach, pike, perch, carp, carp, catfish, flatfish
and other species. In addition, you can see that the corpses of at least
two birds were found on the garbage catcher, and the number of dead fish
fry is generally unknown:
Environmental disaster does not come alone. There is currently no
information about the guilty company
Publication from Artem Prikhodko | Volunteer-Ecoactivist | For people
like people (@artprykhodko)
It's hard to surprise anyone with the poisoning of rivers in Kharkov. A
month before the big war, state television reported the death of almost
one and a half dozen wild ducks and drakes on Udy. The authorities
promised to look into it, but since then, as they say, things have not
been the same
Tatyana Pavlyuk recently shared on the Facebook page of environmental
activist Irina Kravchenko: "I would like to tell you how alive Pisochin
is, especially the Mobil microdistrict with an industrial zone from all
sides and the villages of Nadtochi. Podverki (Dergachiv community), one
plant Swiss Krono produces what, and also dumps it into the small river
Kuryazhanka, which flows into the river Udivische TEC-5. Because just at
the front of the city there is nothing and there is nothing to worry
about, besides the local ones. The state authorities do not study
anything and do not react to the brutalisation of the ncitizens of the
community. Organs that would not exist and nothing would change, besides
the huge amounts of savings on their salaries. If all the residents
realise that they can sit for their money, then taxes, and start feeding
about their lives, then maybe they can change, or not. There's not much
more to it." Who was responsible for the February environmental disaster
with the oil depot in the Nemyshlyansky district is also a rhetorical
question. It's good if at least those reading our magazine still
remember it.
And what is most interesting is that in a city with such an attitude of
the majority towards environmental problems, just as many consider
Africans, Indians and other dark-skinned people to be savages and
subhumans who are supposedly incapable of living except in dirt and
garbage. And they are even seriously indignant that after the war
Ukraine will supposedly be populated by migrants from southern
countries. Year after year they themselves demonstrate what they are so
afraid of.
Finally, let's add that the Assembly previously talked about the
country's first garbage catcher, installed by volunteers in Udy, which
caught tens of tons of trash in the first year of operation .
In addition, we showed what a practically dead pine forest on Saltovka
looks like, and also looked into the reasons for its death .
Original article in Ukrainian:
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2024/06/26/poisoned-rivers-bare-banks-how-the-kharkov-construction-materials-plant-is-fighting-with-the-community-for-control-over-the-environmental-protection-zone/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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