Nova Kakhovka

Nova Kakhovka (, ; ) is a city in Kakhovka Raion, Kherson Oblast, southern Ukraine. Nova Kakhovka has been under Russian occupation since February 2022. Its estimated population in 2022 was

Nova Kakhovka is an important port city on the east bank of the Dnieper River, where it meets the downstream end of the Kakhovka Reservoir. It forms one abutment of the Kakhovskyi Bridge over the hydroelectric Kakhovka Dam; the other is located in Beryslav. The city lies immediately downstream of the source of the North Crimean Canal that irrigates the Crimean Peninsula and can be said to control the seat of the channel.

On 6 June 2023, the dam was deliberately destroyed, causing catastrophic drainage of the reservoir. At the time, the dam was under the control of the Russian military, which had seized it in the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

History

A village named Klisheve (or Klyuchove) was founded at the site of modern Nova Kakhovka in 1891. Nova Kakhovka proper was founded in 1951 in connection with the building of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (KHPP), on the site of the former Klisheve. The village was named after a clear freshwater spring. By 20 April 1951, the foundation of the first residential building, at Karl Marx, 31, had been laid, followed by the building's opening on 30 May. After the completion of the power plant, most of the workers stayed in Nova Kakhovka.

Originally destined to remain a small 20,000-person city of hydroelectric engineers, Nova Kakhovka possessed broad development prospects beyond a highly skilled and experienced population due to its central location in Kherson region and access to cheap electricity, railways, highways and waterways, which opened the way to large-tonnage ships from the mouth of the Dnieper to the Pripyat. However, like many small to medium Ukrainian cities in the 1990s and 2000s, the city saw a massive population decline, as younger people moved to bigger cities such as Kherson, Mykolaiv and Kyiv for high paying white collar jobs.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

The Russian occupation of Nova Kakhovka in Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 when Russian forces coming from the direction of occupied Crimea shelled the hydroelectric plant at around 5:00am, however, the plant was undefended and surrendered without a fight by its staff at 11:00am. The following day Russian forces entered the city proper. Valerii Brusenskyi was named the first head of the CMA, having been a member of the Kakhovka District Council, elected in the 2020 Ukrainian local elections as a member of Servant of the People who served as Council Chairman at the time of the invasion. Over the next few months, the city was occupied by Russian forces, and the population was subjected to pro-Russian rallies and the reopening of a Lenin monument. Ukrainian troops responded with acts of resistance, destroying Russian military units and ammunition warehouses, though they were unable to put an end to the Russian presence in Nova Kakhovka. Leontiev would rule through fear of kidnapping, making vocal opponents of Russian occupation disappear, only to be released with significant evidence of torture. Among some of the notable individuals Leontiev would kidnap include; Mykola Rizak, mayor of Tavriysk, Oleh Baturin, a Kakhovka based journalist, Dmitry Vasilyev, secretary of the Nova Kakhovka city council, and his wife, Liudmyla Vasilyeva. On 9 January 2023, Russian occupation forces ordered the closing of several area hospitals, and on 20 January, the city hospital was shelled. This was followed by more mortar attacks, leading to a partial loss of electricity and damage to residential buildings. The illegal and sham 2023 elections in Russian-occupied Ukraine elected the first Deputies to this council, including Leontiev who resigned as mayor to be named the Council's President, effectively retaining his power.

The office of mayor was passed to Leontiev's deputy; Vitaly Gura, the former elder of the village of Dnipriany, who, prior to the war was head of a government contracted mechanic company that repaired all of Nova Kakhovka's utility vehicles before the war, and was supposedly close with Kovalenko. Instead of ruling through fear, Gura instead ruled through corruption, giving lucrative government contracts to allies, and creating a network of mini-oligarchs across the city, as a sort of imitation of Putinism and Silovikis. Even the CMA reported that Gura's rule saw a general softening of the occupation, with the torture chamber under the Nova Kakhovka police station reportedly being shut down. While experts and observers agree that Russia blew the dam in an effort to prevent a Kherson Counteroffensive-like counteroffensive from crossing the Dnipro river, Russia still denies it had anything to do with the massive explosion at the hydropower dam under their direct military control, despite studies of footage of the blast showing it could only have come from inside the structure, as a planned demolition. Gura was also sentenced alongside Leontiev in absentia in March 2023, due to helping orchestrate the kidnapping ring as Leontiev's deputy.

In his place Saldo installed Oleh Tarabaka as the new "acting mayor." She still holds this office. Longtime leader of the Ukrainian CMA Brusenskyi would be replaced sometime between August 25–28 with Oleh Tarabaka the former deputy of Kovalenko. On October 1, Saldo announced that Leontiev was assassinated by a "Baba Yaga drone."

Demographics

Distribution of the population by ethnic groups according to the 2001 Ukrainian census:

Native languages according to the 2001 Ukrainian census:

Modern Nova Kakhovka

Economy and transport

The main economic activities in Nova Kakhovka are engineering (electrotechnology) and power production. Near the city, the large North Crimean Canal begins, supplying southwest Kherson Oblast and the entire northern part of the Crimea with water from the Dnieper River.

thumb|A pathway in Stepan Faldzinsky Park

The city is located between Kherson in the west and Melitopol to the east, near European route E58, which runs from Odesa to Rostov-on-Don. The city has a non-electrified, one-track railway, an airport, a water route to the Black Sea, and a port located on the southwest part of the Khakovka Reservoir.

City attractions

Stepan Faldzinsky Park, a designated protected natural area, is named after the native Polish agrarian from Podolie who created the green oasis at the Oleshky Sands. The city is also known for its "stone emroidery" - exterior moulding with traditional Ukrainian patterns done in 1953-1955 by a group of Boychukist artists.

File:Новокаховська міська рада (Нова Каховка) 03.jpg|The administrative center of Nova Kakhovka

File:Market in Nova Kakhovka.jpg|The Central shopping centre, formerly Children's World

File:Triumphal arch over Nova Kakhovka locks.jpg|Triumphal arch over the Nova Kakhovka locks

File:Naberezhna in Nova Kakhovka.jpg|The shoreline in Nova Kakhovka

File:Park Slavy in Nova Kahkovka.jpg|The Park of Glory

File:Nova Kakhovka Enerhiya Stadium 8.jpg|Enerhiya Stadium

File:Nova Kakhovka Orthodox Cathedral.jpg|Nova Kakhovka Orthodox Cathedral

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Culture

thumb|right|SHABO restaurant complex

thumb|right|The elephant at the playground – an unofficial symbol of the city

The main cultural center of Nova Kakhovka is the Palace of Culture, which hosts regular performances of creative groups and folk ensembles, both local and from neighboring areas.

Nova Kakhovka has a museum of local history with a permanent exhibition on the history of the city, a wine museum, the house-museum of Anatoly Bakhuta, an art gallery named after Albin Gavdzinsky, libraries, a summer theater, and the "Youth" cinema, part of the Cinema Palace.

The city has three parks, squares, beaches, promenade, numerous cafés, nightclubs, a zoo and amusement park.

Sports

thumb|right|Main gate of the Energia Stadium

Nova Kakhovka has three sports schools for children and youth, 21 gyms, 110 sports grounds, a water sports base, and 13 tennis courts.

The Novokakhovska Tennis School is one of the best in Ukraine and well-known graduates include not only male (Andriy Shashkov, Maksym Dubov, Serhiy Yaroshenko, Serhiy Vergun, Oleksandr Maksymov and Dmytro Biletsky) and female players (Motobol Natalia Biletska, Yuliana Fedak and Halyna Furgailo) but also coaches (Serhiy Zhytsky, an Honored Coach of Ukraine, Serhiy Korovaiko, Andriy Dubov, Tetyana Furgailo, Olga Kushnirenko and Anatoliy Biletsky).

The Energia City Stadium hosts popular sports such as motoball and soccer. Motorcyclists won silver medals in the 2001 Ukrainian championship, and the FC Enerhiya Nova Kakhovka football team has won the regional cup 21 times and the regional championship 25 times.

Nova Kakhovka's Dynamo archery complex can simultaneously hold 70 archers on the shooting range, and the city has won the archery championships of Ukraine and the Cup of Ukraine. The city's archery team took eighth place at the 2002 championship of Ukraine. Among the city's more famous archers are Tamara Literova, Vadim Reznikov, Lyudmila Arzhannikova and Anastasia Pavlova.

Nova Kakhovka has also developed children's and youth basketball programs with the assistance of coaches like Dzyubenko N. Z., whose students have represented the city at regional competitions. The city's basketball players are part of professional teams in Kyiv, Dnipro, Cherkasy, Odesa, and Poltava.

Media

Five weekly newspapers are published in Nova Kakhovka: the Nova Kakhovka (founded by the city council) and the private Novyny Dilovi, Klyuchi, Dniprovsikyi Prospect and Tavriiski chas publications.

Нова Каховка.City is an online city publication created in October 2017 by the Center for the Development of Deaf Children and the Abo local media development agency.

Radio broadcasting services in the city are provided by the Novokakhovka City Radio Organization.

Notable people

Lyudmila Arzhannikova – world and European archery champion
– Ukrainian poet, laureate of the international literary prize named after Aleksei Kruchonykh
Valeriy Borzov – two-time Olympic champion in athletics
Sergei Chukhray – three-time Olympic champion in rowing
Maxim Dondyuk – Ukrainian documentary filmmaker
– Ukrainian actress and television presenter
(1883-1967) – gardener, park decorator, and creator of the city park
– Ukrainian artist
(b. 1957) – Ukrainian doctor
Constantine Gubka – Merited Master of Sports title-holder and five-time kickboxing world champion
– Ukrainian poet, journalist and public figure
– served in the 5th Company of the Dnipro-1 Regiment's Volunteer Battalion. Killed in action.
Tamara Literova – Soviet archery champion
– Armed Forces of Ukraine soldier, fought in the Russo-Ukrainian War, killed in action.
Andrey Rappoport – entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist
– Soviet Ukrainian archery coach
(1957-2016) – Armed Forces of Ukraine officer who fought in the Russo-Ukrainian war
Anastasia Pavlova – European champion archer who competed in the XXXI Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro
(b. 1975) – Honored Coach of Ukraine, Master of Sports title-holder and Honored Worker of Physical Culture and Sports of Ukraine