Tarasivka Airfield

The airfield's closure was a direct result of the economic turmoil following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was primarily an agricultural aviation base, and the centralized, state-funded system (operated by Aeroflot) that supported such airfields collapsed. The transition to a market economy, the restructuring of collective farms (kolkhozes), and the general economic decline eliminated the demand and financial support for widespread aerial crop-dusting and other agricultural air services, leading to the abandonment of thousands of similar small airfields across Ukraine.

The airfield is completely abandoned and derelict. Satellite imagery shows a single paved runway (approximately 600-700 meters long) that is cracked, weathered, and overgrown with vegetation. The associated support buildings are in ruins. The land is not actively used for aviation and parts of the surrounding area have reverted to agricultural use. Critically, since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the airfield is located in a territory (Kherson Oblast, left bank of the Dnipro River) that is under Russian military occupation. While there is no public evidence of it being formally reactivated, abandoned infrastructure in conflict zones is often repurposed by military forces for equipment storage, helicopter landing zones, or logistical staging points.

Tarasivka Airfield was a typical Soviet-era agricultural airfield ('аэродром сельхозавиации'). Its primary function was to support the intensive agriculture of the surrounding Kherson Oblast, one of the most fertile regions in Ukraine. Operations were conducted by the agricultural branch of Aeroflot, the state airline of the USSR. The base would have primarily operated a fleet of Antonov An-2 biplanes, the workhorse of Soviet agricultural and utility aviation. These aircraft were used for crop dusting (applying pesticides and herbicides), aerial seeding, and the application of fertilizers over the vast collective farms in the region. The airfield was a small but vital piece of the highly industrialized agricultural infrastructure of the Ukrainian SSR.

Effectively zero. There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Tarasivka Airfield. The primary obstacles are: 1) Its location in an active conflict zone under military occupation. 2) The complete decay of its infrastructure, which would require a total rebuild. 3) The lack of any modern economic or logistical need for such a small, isolated airfield, as agricultural practices have changed and the An-2-based model is obsolete. Post-war reconstruction efforts in Ukraine will be focused on essential services, major transportation hubs, and housing, making the revival of a minor Soviet-era airstrip an extremely low priority.