UNHCR helping with repairs of more than 27,500 houses in Ukraine since start of Russia’s full-scale invasion
Today, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, together with the Ambassador of Japan to Ukraine, Kuninori Matsuda, and the Head of the EU Humanitarian Aid in Ukraine, Claudia Amaral, visited families and locations in Kyiv region to see the results of house repairs and new solutions implemented for people who have had their homes damaged or destroyed in the war.
In close cooperation with the Government of Ukraine and its regional and local authorities, UNHCR together with its partners has completed the repair of over 27,500 homes across the country since the massive escalation of the war in February 2022 – and more repairs are finalized every week.
Regions such as Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy have seen significant repairs and rehabilitations implemented by UNHCR, focusing primarily on repairs of private houses, but also multi-story apartment buildings where windows typically are replaced and upgraded, the press service of UNHCR reported.
It is noted that in order to ensure that the repair support is tailored to the specific needs and situation of each family, UNHCR either engages Ukrainian contractors to do the repair works, provides construction materials or cash to cover repair costs and materials.
The European Union and Japan are the three largest donors to UNHCR’s response in Ukraine, enabling the Agency to support and assist the war-affected people in greatest need across the country.
On January 23, the delegation visited Horenka and Irpin, accompanied by head of Kyiv Regional State Administration Ruslan Kravchenko.
In addition to durable repairs of houses and multi-story buildings, UNHCR provides emergency shelter materials immediately after attacks. This has been the case following Russia’s recent attacks in Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih and Odesa, which the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has visited in recent days to see first-hand the ongoing destruction and the immediate humanitarian response provided through UNHCR’s partners in close liaison with local authorities.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, more than 271,684 people have received such emergency shelter kits, enabling them to quickly fix the immediate damage to their homes.
UNHCR also contributes to state-led programme e-Vidnovlennia and mechanisms launched to support access to housing and compensation for people whose homes were destroyed, by sharing its comprehensive dataset on damage assessment and response (SIDAR) and providing legal advice to help people apply for compensations or restore vital property documents. This is part of the Ukraine is Home collaboration, launched by UNHCR and Ukraine’s Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development a year ago to strengthen the complementarity between humanitarian and government-led programmes.
On January 18, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi announced that he was heading to Moldova and Ukraine.