In the boundless steppes of Kherson region lies the small village of Mykhailiv, which you have hardly heard of before. But it is here that a story is taking shape that has gone far beyond its borders. Despite the war and remoteness, a sports club operates here that has united children not only from the community but also from the neighboring Mykolaiv region. And the results of this work are known even beyond Ukraine.
MOST visited Mykhailiv and reports how the small village became a point of strength and is raising world champions.
Mykhailiv was previously called Nova Kaluga; the village was renamed in 2023. The settlement is the center of the Mykhailiv community, which also includes three villages – Butsivske, Novopavlivka and Liudmilivka. Currently 800 people live in the community, many of them internally displaced persons, mostly from Vesele, Kozatske and Beryslav.
The village elder Olena Ponomarenko says that at the beginning of the full-scale invasion many people, especially families with children, left. However, at present the entire elderate has returned, and IDPs have also joined.
The war, paradoxically, became a certain point of growth for Mykhailiv. Due to its remoteness from the combat zone, farmers can work here, contributing to the village’s development. Its foundation is provided by grant programs.
“I write grants. I write about 25 applications a month. One or two per month ‘hit’ for the village’s development. Mostly I write them myself, and I also have an assistant,” says Olena Ponomarenko. “Right now we have won a grant to improve the park area, and they will install benches, bins, flowerbeds for us”.
Since the start of the large-scale war, the village has been visited by many representatives of charitable foundations and volunteer organizations. With donor funds, people’s roofs were repaired and windows replaced. Social transport runs free of charge — twice a week you can go to Velyka Oleksandrivka. There is also a water pump in the village, and residents of neighboring settlements come here for water.
“They take care of us. Our village has always been promising and prosperous. The first land distribution was in Nova Kaluha. Farmers divided up, started working for themselves and caring for the village and its people,” notes Olena Ponomarenko.
Mykhailo, who moved to the village from Kozatske, says — he buried his mother here, who died as a result of a mine impact. The man himself also received a serious injury from “petals” scattered by an enemy drone. They now live in Mykhailiv. Recalling his native Kozatske, he says: “We are from a village that no longer exists”.
Olena shows us a small chapel where villagers go to ask for support and help.
“Mainly we ask for health. We know how to work, but we ask here for health and strength. I myself sometimes come when I’m having a hard time, stand for a while. And by morning my life issues are resolved,” says the elder.
However, the main miracle of Mykhailiv is still its people. For even during the full-scale invasion they managed to create a place that united all the children of the community and even from the neighboring region and is, without exaggeration, becoming known throughout the country and even the world. This is about the karate sports club “Katana”.
According to Olena Ponomarenko, in 2024 a coach from Kherson, Leonid Cherniavskyi, who before the full-scale invasion was the vice-president of the All-Ukrainian organization “Kyokushin Budo Karate,” approached her with a proposal to create a sports club for children in Mykhailiv. The elder agreed immediately.
At first the club was opened in an old kindergarten whose building was part of the school that survived the missile strike.
“The tatami were bought for us by the British, it cost about 50 thousand. And classes started immediately. Later there was a need to expand and we began repairs in the damaged community center. We completely redid everything there: made a hall, toilet, rooms, changing rooms. All at the expense of donors, and also Natalia Kornienko (head of the Velyka Oleksandrivka settlement military administration — MOST) helped,” says Olena Ponomarenko.
Now all the children of the elderate attend this club, and they also come from the Mykolaiv region. There are 22 children who train directly in the club premises, and 18 in the school building.
Training children is the calling of Leonid Cherniavskyi, which neither occupation nor forced departure could change. The man says that after the start of the large-scale war he left Kherson region, but then returned and immediately began to look for how to get back to work.
“We opened on February 21, 2024, and 20 children came immediately. Logistics here are poor, the roads are bad. If there is no rain, parents drive the children through the fields, and when it rains, the children walk. I myself walk 5 kilometers on foot in bad weather”, — he notes.
With special pride the coach talks about his trainees, who in two years have already taken part in more than 15 competitions across Ukraine, and traveled to European and world championships. Two girls — Adel and Kristina — became candidates for Master of Sport and took prize third places at international competitions.
“When we opened the club, the head of the military administration Natalia Volodymyrivna (Korniienko — MOST) was present. Well, I then said that at most in two years we’d get to the world championships, the children would become prize-winners, champions of Ukraine. I noticed that she didn’t immediately believe in this dream. But we made it come true — the children went to the world championship, we have children who became champions of Ukraine. I believe that all this is real. I see children who were born already as karatekas. For example, there is a whole family of three children who come to us, and all three are natural-born karatekas,” says Cherniavskyi.
As for how the club’s name “Katana” appeared, the coach has a separate story. In Kherson he worked with children at the sports club “Legenda” under the direction of Honored Coach of Ukraine Serhii Vsevolodov. From there Leonid brought a katana, which now decorates the hall in Mykhailiv and became the symbol and name of the club. According to him, this sharp samurai sword inspires his pupils to believe in their dreams and achieve victories.
The children we spoke with also enthusiastically talk about training. Adel and Kristina, candidates for Master of Sport, say: thanks to the club they not only revealed their talents and achieved success, but also gained the opportunity to see the world.
“I train at ‘Katana’ to be able to protect myself and my relatives,” says the boy Serhii, who came to Mykhailiv with his parents from Dariivka. “In Dariivka planes and Shaheds were flying. We tried to leave with my parents, the first time we couldn’t. But then we did leave to Ternopil. And after a year we came here, to my grandmother. I like it here. We have just arrived from Poltava, where I won a bronze medal. And soon we will go to Poznan for the European Championship”.
The “Katana” karate sports club has effectively become the largest sports organization in Kherson region. In this small steppe village the honored coach is raising future European and world champions. And the club is supported by the parents of the children who train here.
We call on everyone moved by this story to help the “Katana” club with a possible donation:
🔗Link to the donation jar: https://send.monobank.ua/jar/4U8arE7cKC
💳Bank card number: 4874 1000 2569 3865