Chernihiv is a medium sized Ukrainian city, of about 250,000 people, to the north of Kyiv and close to the border with Belarus. When on 24 February 2022 the Russian Armed Forces attacked Ukraine over the Belarusian border, they laid a trail of destruction in their path. They came within 5 kilometres of the centre of Chernihiv, occupying many of the villages and smaller settlements outside the city. In the course of their march on Kyiv, which consisted principally of sending a trail of armoured vehicles down the western side of the River Dnipro through Chornobyl and south towards Irpin and Bucha northwest of Kyiv, their attempts at occupying Chernihiv were more half-hearted but given the city’s proximity to the international border (in the region of 70 kilometres) an attempt was made to take this historical town.
As a result many of the town’s houses and cultural buildings were destroyed. Casual shelling was the principal cause of the damage done; although the house I was taken to this morning had been destroyed by a tank shell. It is now being reconstructed with volunteer labour, and once a week these volunteers, part of what they call the “Phoenix Group” in Chernihiv (although there are other organisations with similar names elsewhere in Ukraine), spend their days, six and a half days a week, reconstructing houses that have been the victims of war damage. I have a met a handful of such people who do this kind of work and it is hard labour and relentless work because the work is endless. In the house that had been hit by a tank shell, the damage to the structure of the building, in a suburb of Chernihiv, was significant; windows were lost, the interior of the building was destroyed, and yet still nine people had to continue to live in the building because there was nowhere else for them to live. These are the sorts of hard realities facing daily life in area of Ukraine that were formerly battle zones and in or close to the prior zones of occupation now vacated by the Russians when they were routed from their assault on Kyiv in the early days of the second Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The work of the Phoenix Group in Chernihiv, which consists of a handful of stout volunteers many of whom are taking personal risks to travel around the region and who work for nothing, virtually relentlessly, is particularly astounding. They are committed volunteers who take on a series of projects all of which seem never-ending because rebuilding a destroyed home is a huge amount of work requiring a variety of skills and specialist materials. I have found a number of micro-reconstruction organisations involved in rebuilding homes for people to live in in the formerly occupied north of the country; it is impossible to scale up these projects because there are no multi-national construction companies operating in wartime Ukraine and there is no money. So everything has to be done by hand, using whatever materials are available to them, and it all takes a lot of time.
Groups of individuals who for whatever reason have been displaced from other parts of the country find themselves amidst new groups of friends by reason of the necessities of war. Together, despite the hardships and suffering living through a war zone, these people find ways to pass their day and work in a constructive and peaceful way towards the goal of preserving an independent and prosperous Ukraine, by sheer hard work. Their backgrounds may all be different; none of them may have had any experience in construction or even in manual labour before adopting new voluntary roles as rebuilders of homes around the families who continue to live in them. There are certain priorities. The heating is one, as it can be cold in Chernihiv and round: on the date of writing this it is -6 degrees and snowing. To keep a large family with children happy and warm amidst the chaos of reconstruction is quite a feat.
My visit to Chernihiv will only be a short one, for a couple of days, to understand the city, its remarkable history, and its vibrant daily life. But I want to advocate for contributions, both in terms of finance and personnel, to the Phoenix Group in Chernihiv. Firstly they need money, because the equipment involved in reconstruction of homes destroyed by artillery or tank rounds is significant. I type these words from a semi-reconstructed kitchen hit squarely with a shell from a Russian tank. It takes funds to rebuild each house, step by step: and remember that these are volunteers, devoting every ounce of their energy to the work they are undertaking. Moreover they need labourers who are willing to join them, and they welcome foreign volunteers.
If you are present in Ukraine and you want a volunteering experience quite different from those you may usually find in Lviv or elsewhere in the West, trying offering a week or two of your committed labour to the Phoenix Group in Chernihiv. They will provide food and accommodation for free, and they will expect a full day’s work from you, just as they work. I have seen their work in action and I can commend them to the highest degree. Here are their contact details, which are in Ukrainian but you can write to them or call them in English and they welcome English-speaking volunteers:
Благодійна Організація Благодійний Фонд "ФЕНІКС-УКРАЇНА" / БО БФ ФЕНІКС-UA:
допомагаємо відбудовувати зруйновані війною оселі
Юр.адреса: Україна 04209
м. Київ, вул. Богатирська 11
КОД 45010967
Email: phoenix.ua.rebuild@gmail.com
Tel. +38 095 720 69 91
Tel. +38 095 249 26 96
Telegram:
@Rebuild_UA_Phoenix
Facebook:
PayPal:
Карта волонтера (Монобанк):
4441 1110 5748 3848 (UAH)
(Domestic Ukrainian inter-card payments only)
International transfers:
(UAH, USD, EUR):
UA193802810000026006000001387
АТ "БАНК ІНВЕСТИЦІЙ ТА ЗАОЩАДЖЕНЬ"
ЄДРПОУ 33695095
If you have any trouble in contacting them, feel free to write to the Lviv Herald on WhatsApp or by email (details here) and we will place you directly in contact with them.
The Phoenix Group in Chernihiv is a superlative opportunity to work in a beautiful city undertaking reconstruction of destroyed homes while the families continue to live in them. These families will give you the warmest of welcomes and you will feel entirely at home. There are direct trains every other day from Lviv that take 13 hours overnight in each direction. If you would prefer to stay in private accommodation, it is cheap and plentiful, as are bars, restaurants, shops and hospitality. Chernihiv is one of the most fascinating cities in Ukraine, being the second most important city in the Kievan Rus’ (the historical Ukrainian independent state), and you are guaranteed a warm welcome wherever you go. If you can’t make it to Chernihiv for any reason, then please consider donating financially to this, the most noble of causes undertaken by some of the hardest working and most committed people I have met in Ukraine.
