According to Oksana Shylo, head of agricultural enterprises “Tavilzhanske” and “Kup’iansk Agroinvest” of the Ukrainian industrial and investment group Aurum, who lived for more than 8 months under the occupation, from the first days of the full-scale invasion of russia into Ukraine (in Tavilzhanka village, Kharkiv region), the issue of demining the agricultural lands of the region will be very difficult: “The issue of land demining is very difficult and painful. There are three layers of mining everywhere. At present, there are mines hanging even on trees, not to mention the ground. Our boys cannot pass, – said Oksana Shylo, – But the most important thing is to expell the occupiers.“
As Oksana Shylo shared, agricultural enterprises of Aurum Group helped survive not only the locals in the village, which has about 3 thousand inhabitants, but also refugees and residents of neighboring villages: “The owner of the business, Alona Lebedieva, immediately said to provide any help to the Armed Forces and the people, whatever was possible for us. The first thing we did was restoring the bakery, which was closed back in 1990. But in order for us to start baking bread, our men had to carry flour by themselves, walking on broken bridges, humping 3-4 tons every week. Nevertheless, we did feed people with bread, – said Oksana Shylo, – We restored grain grinding at private entrepreneurs and artisanal lines for production of pasta products. During the period of occupation, about 126 tons of wheat were used up. It was enough for us to feed both our population and refugees, and to share with neighboring villages. We were able to feed about 20,000 people.“
Aurum Group’s enterprises “Tavilzhanske” and “Kup’iansk Agroinvest” are located in a 30-km zone from the russian border, in the Dvorichne district of the Kharkiv region. As it was previously reported, agricultural enterprises of Aurum Group have suffered significant losses and are currently enduring living in the line of fire.