The Tyachivska amalgamated hromada is convinced that decentralisation should continue and awaits new powers.

Author: Dmytro Synyak

For more than five hundred years, the village of Ruske Pole was called Urmyzyovo, translated from Hungarian as Panske Pole (Landlord’s Field). For some time this place was also called Kryvave Pole (Bloody Field) as fierce battles took place here during ancient times.

"We had no doubt about amalgamation, because there was no other way out," says Vasyl Miryavets, starosta of Ruske Pole. "I will tell you the following thing: since we entered the hromada, we have built a road, repaired one kindergarten and replaced the heating system, all the windows and doors in the other one. We have an artificial surface mini-football field of 40 x 22 metres. We have repaired the outpatient clinic and opened a Greco-Roman wrestling gym. Every year, since the hromadas’ amalgamation, at least UAH 200 thousand have been spent on the repairs of each of our schools. Besides, the school in Ruske Pole received UAH 2.5 million for capital expenditures. I am scared to recall the times when I asked UAH 53 thousand from the rayon administration to repair the roof of the village council, and got refusals. At the end of the year, UAH 20 thousand were allocated, which I did not manage to master. After all, it is impossible to repair only half of the roof! The village council has never managed its own funds before. And we could even have money on our accounts, but could not use it without permission from Kyiv. What do I want to say by this? Want to say that everything has changed dramatically. And I’m in favour of these changes. That's my political position."

“And we do not mind choosing a sheriff,” adds Vasyl Miryavets. “We have no influence on the police chief appointed by Kyiv.”

Despite several serious questions that remained unanswered, I was leaving Ruske Pole with a sense of pleasure. After all, here people began to raise problems that no one was interested in for decades. For the first time during the years of independence, people have realised what a self-sufficient and capable hromada is. For the first time they have decided to put things right. They race each other in offering solutions to various problems, they address the central government requiring changes. And there is a feeling that these changes will be soon. After all, politicians must do what people demand from them in one way or another.

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