TWO MILLION HOMES in Ukraine have been destroyed following the invasion by Russia – but an Irish-backed United Nations project is helping rebuild the devastated lives of those affected.
Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion in February 2022, millions of displaced people have fled Ukraine, but one factor stopping them returning is the fact, for many, that their home have been destroyed.
To remedy this, a programme of prefabricated houses is underway in battle scarred parts of the country to provide a chance for those people to rebuild their lives.
Around the Kyiv region, Elisabeth Arnsdorf Haslund and a team with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have been building prefabricated structures on the plots where houses once stood. The owners of the bombed out buildings then can move in.
Early in the war. the immediate Kyiv region was the scene of heavy fighting and also where Russian atrocities and war crimes were committed, mostly notably in the town of Bucha where the soldiers killed civilians.
Haslund said that the destruction of around two million homes of Ukrainian civilians continues. She said that the prefabricated structures are only for when the properties cannot be repaired in the UNHCR project.
“One of the things we are doing is working to ensure that people either have their damaged houses repaired in a way that they can return or continue living there and for some families, the houses are simply so destroyed that it’s impossible to do any repairs right now.
“To help these families we can then help them by providing a prefabricated home,” she said.
The houses are all built in Ukraine by a local company to reduce the problems of wartime logistics. The final installations come complete with electricity and water.
“It is a solution but it is not a permanent solution, but then a solution that can still function for some time until the family would be able to rebuild their home, and it allows people to stay on their own land,” Haslund added.
“This is so important for many families and for their communities – they have been living there for generations.
“In that way, we can allow people to stay in their communities, stay stay in their homeland, and then give them a proper and warm roof over their head.”
Haslund said that the UNHCR is also engaged in a major repair project across the liberated former battlegrounds.
Those works amount to repairing bomb-damaged walls and roofs, or simply fixing doors and windows which smashed as explosive ordnance fell nearby.
Ireland has provided the UNHCR with funding which has gone to the prefabricated structures as well as other initiatives – the first tranche of funding was €5m in 2022 and €4.5m in 2023.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has said that the funding also covers the regional response to provide shelter, food, medicine and other needs for refugees who have fled to neighbouring countries.
The building programme aims to have 300 prefab homes built by end of 2024 – they currently have 135 completed.
“So far we are scaling up this year but it depends on the support and the funding to continue with it.
“The strong support from Ireland to support this project, which will really help families.
“The two million homes in Ukraine that have been destroyed – it is easy maths that this project will not help everyone. We need that critical support to continue not just the emergency help we are giving but also the more durable solutions for people who are so extremely affected by this war, we need the support from the international community to do so,” she added.
Two of the people helped by the project are Tetiana and her husband Vladyslav who live in Horenka near Kyiv, and whose home was razed when a Russian missile struck the area.
In the immediate aftermath they stayed with friends and relatives but they wanted to get back to the land their families had lived on for four generations.
Irish Aid assistance in conjunction with the UNHCR project came and installed the prefab structure on her land.
“I am glad to be staying on my own land,” she said. “Living in others’ homes is not for me. Of course, this core home will not replace our house, but it is still very meaningful for me and my husband. Four generations have lived on this land and I would never want to abandon it.
“For people like me, who lost everything, this is a very good solution.”
Another of those to receive help, Olena, was heavily pregnant with her second child when her home was completely destroyed by a Russian attack in March 2022.
Along with her daughter Veronika, she fled abroad to give birth to baby Elizabeta Julia.
When her home region of Borodianka, close to Kyiv, was retaken by Ukraine, she moved
home with her two daughters and was reunited with her husband, Yevhen.
The family initially rented a small apartment in Kyiv but always wanted to return to their
home village. The prefab has allowed them to return home.
Another woman, Maria, was sheltering with her one-month old son in the basement of a puppet theatre when she received a photo from a neighbour of her house in flames.
She had fled her small town to seek shelter in the nearby city of Chernihiv following Russia’s invasion. She spent 10 days cradling her baby in the crowded basement before being evacuated to a nearby shelter.
Haslund said that the work, particularly around the repairing of homes, is a “tangible” assistance that can have huge positive outcomes.
She said the UNHCR has been carrying out so-called “intentions” surveys of refugees and it has found that the vast majority wish to return home to Ukraine.
“Living in the neighbourhood where they call home with all that security – it is a universal human thing that we can all understand,” she said.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say