On 17 March, representatives from the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, the European Union (EU) Delegation to Ukraine, and the Energy Efficiency Fund visited Irpin, where they saw the first houses repaired under the Restoration Program.

The Kyiv region suffered significant damage during the offensive and subsequent temporary occupation of Russian troops. Hundreds of homes were partially or completely destroyed. The Restoration Program was created as a quick response to this. Designed to help restore housing as quickly as possible, the program finances 100% of the construction work and materials necessary for its implementation. The association of co-owners for the Zatyshny and Novo-Oskolsky residential complexes in Irpin applied to participate in the program immediately after its launch in November 2022. Within two months, restoration work on four buildings had been completed, and residents were able to return to them.

‘Given the high need for urgent rehabilitation in the housing sector, we decided to launch the Restoration Program (VidnovyDIM) to cover the costs of restoring multifamily buildings,’ says Chloé Allio, Head of the Department for Economic Cooperation, Energy, Infrastructure and Environment of the EU Delegation to Ukraine. ‘This programme, operating in six regions, supports full financing of rehabilitation costs, and allows people return to their homes in good living conditions, helping to revive the local economy, which is of critical importance in war times.’

As a result of hostilities in Irpin, seven-storey buildings built in 2014 as part of residential complex Novo-Oskolsky were damaged. This included damage to the façade and thermal insulation of the walls, warped doors and window frames, and partial destruction of the interior partitions and one staircase. As part of the Restoration Program, two buildings received grants totaling more than UAH 7 million. With these funds, the facades were repaired, the destroyed engineering systems were restored, and many windows and balcony doors, as well as external and internal vestibule doors, were replaced.

The six-storey buildings of the Zatyshny residential complex in Irpen, built in 2017, also suffered damage, including splitting and destruction of thermal insulation in the external walls, separated windows, door frames and double-glazing, and openings and cracks in the plaster. For the restoration, two buildings received grants of more than UAH 5.5 million.

‘Today, we see the first results of implementation of the Restoration Program which, thanks to our partnership with the EU, was launched as soon as possible,’ noted Yehor Farenyuk, Director of the Energy Efficiency Fund. ‘Currently, the program is funded exclusively by donor funds from the EU. This is extremely important support for Ukraine, especially in this difficult time for us. We have already received around 70 applications for participation in the program from condominiums in different regions. This constitutes 5 000 Ukrainian families who, thanks to such support, will be able to restore their homes and return to normal life. Once again, I would like to express my gratitude to our partners from the EU for their assistance and reliable long-term cooperation. I’d also like to thank the condominiums for their proactivity, endurance and perseverance in achieving results – you are the real heroes of our time.’

During their visit to Irpin, the Delegation talked to the co-owners of the first restored buildings, who had promptly responded to the launch of the new program and submitted all the necessary documents to the Energy Efficiency Fund. The mechanism of the Restoration Program – an advance payment of 70% – made it possible to quickly purchase the necessary materials and start work. Today, they live in their own homes, and residents of the apartments that were burned out during enemy shelling are beginning to rebuild their lives in safe, restored housing.

The Restoration Program has already expanded its geography – today, condominiums in the Mykolaiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk regions and in Kyiv can take part. ,’ says Oleksandr Butenko, Deputy Minister of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine. The maximum grant amount that one object of recovery can receive has also increased since the beginning of the Program, from UAH 6 million to UAH 7.2 million. In total, the EU has allocated EUR 25 million for the Program’s implementation – in particular, EUR 5 million for the pilot stage, which is currently being implemented. Yehor Fareniuk has observed that the Restoration Program is not only popular among condominiums; the Energy Efficiency Fund is increasingly receiving requests regarding the need to restore damaged housing from residents of housing under other forms of management. The issue of expanding the Program to cover various forms of housing management, as well as adding an energy-efficient component, is therefore currently highly relevant.’