Oleksij Pryma is a regional coordinator of the Humanitarian Mission of Prolisk responsible for evacuating and resettlement of Ukrainians from the front line. Sam is a refugee. He and his family escaped from Siewierodoniecka in the Lugansk region in February 2022. Five months later, his hometown was destroyed and then occupied by the Russian army.
The primate moved to Dnieper, a city in central Ukraine, which happened The main center for the Ukrainian army and hundreds of thousands of refugees evacuated from the frontand began to help others resettled around the country.
Volunteers such as the primend are needed because financially limited The government of Ukraine has difficulty dealing with millions of refugees – and hundreds of evacuated from the areas of fighting every day. They encounter bureaucratic obstacles to obtaining compensation for destroyed houses or for property abandoned in areas occupied by Russia.
The problems are so great that Some even decide to return to areas under Russian occupation. Over 4.5 million Ukrainians registered as refugees in the country. The government claims that it works hard to find new houses for them. And even more people escaped from the country and registered as refugees in Western countries. Many of them have no houses to which they could return.
Continued article under video material
According to estimates of the Kiev School of Economics, over three years of war Russian fire caused damage to residential buildings worth over $ 60 billion. [ok. 220 mld zł]. The destruction is still progressing; Almost every day, local authorities inform that dozens of new buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
“They will rebuild the facade only after the new year”
The government has a compensation system for people who have lost their homes. However, it is not able to satisfy demand, and the process slows down bureaucracy. The first step is to submit an application for assistance under the Erecovery program – the main government tool for paying compensation to house owners. Then a special commission arrives to assess the damage and provide people with a protective tape to cover broken windows. Volunteers help clean up debris, while the inhabitants begin an exhaustive process of obtaining money from local and central authorities.
– We were told that the authorities would rebuild the facade only after the new year … And the interior must be repaired ourselves. We have no money-says Switłana Fiedoriwna, a 73-year-old consistency from a residential building in Kiev, in which a Russian drone hit June 17.
In 2025, Ukraine allocated 15 billion Hryvien [ok. 1,3 mld zł] For the support of internally resettled refugees, as the Ukrainian Ministry of Development informs us. This has already enabled over 7300 families to buy apartments in safer regions. By the end of the year, another 3,000 families will receive financing. In total, over 135,000 families received compensation from the state as part of Erecovery – from money to repairs to new apartments.
The problem with the accommodation of the evacuated particularly remembered about himself in August on the occasion of severe Russian attacks. Volunteers of Proliski in Pawłhrad had to set up tentsbecause there was no place to accept 400 new evacuated arriving every day. – Last month there was the peak of evacuation, when there was a really large flow of people and a bottleneck, but we directly pointed out the government's attention. After our prime minister visited the transit center, the issue of resettlement, especially the resettlement of people with limited physical efficiency, was very quickly resolved – recalls the top.
Apartment block after drone attack. Pawłohrad, April 25, 2025Mykola Makshykov / Ukrinform / PAP
After the August problems, the Ukrainian government was more active in evacuation and resettlement, and Currently, he is trying to transfer over 17,000 people from the war zonesays the top. The authorities also announced a subsidy of 1 billion hryvnia [ok. 88 mln zł] for local communities for the construction of temporary shelters, as well as simplified procedures for transferring state and municipal institutions to resettle refugees.
– Mainly families with children and the elderly receive shelter in various state dorms for free. Yes, this is not your own apartment, but And so much better than life under constant bombing – says Pryma, adding that some dorms have been freshly renovated.
There are a total of 1095 temporary accommodation in Ukraine, providing over 77 thousand. Beds for displaced persons, of which about 6,200 beds remain free, reports the Ministry of Development. In addition to providing temporary apartments, local governments allocate hundreds of millions of hryvnia from local budgets for renovation works and other compensation, and also grant low -interest loans for new apartments.
However, the scale of the challenge is huge. Only in Kiev – the richest city of Ukraine – from 2022 over 2,345 residential buildings were damaged, but Local authorities plan to rebuild only 52 of themsaid the City Council of Kiev.
“Only a person with a Russian passport can sell real estate”
Ukrainians imprisoned in the regions occupied by Russia are struggling with even greater difficulties. It wasn't until last month that they obtained the right to apply for compensation from Ukraine due to the inability of Kiev to examine damaged real estate. The new program will not require evidence in the form of photos of destroyed houses.
If they fail to obtain compensation, some Ukrainians will be forced to return to the zones occupied by the Russians. Ok 30 percent The inhabitants of Mariupol – won by the Russians in a bloody siege, which in the first months of the war consumed thousands of victims – had to return, as the Ukrainian mayor of Mariupola, Wady Bojczenko, said last year. In his opinion, the main reason for the return of so many people under the Russian occupation was the lack of apartments in regions controlled by Kiev.
Mariupola ruins in June 2022.EPA / SERGEI ILNITSKY / PAP
People are also coming back, because only in this way can they sell their properties, as Maksym Borodin, a member of the Mariupol City Council in exile, emphasizes. – Only a person with a Russian passport can sell the property. So the Ukrainian must return to Mariupol, get a Russian passport … Only then there is a chance to sell – adds Borodin. Several houses built in Mariupol since 2022 were sold to the Russians.
And people They realistically assess the chances of the Ukrainian army to reflect places such as Mariupol. – Unless Russia suddenly falls, there is no chance to liberate our city in the near future. The Russians now give people houses to loyalists in Mariupol. They constantly put up the “apartment without the owner” for sale, [czyli] Those who escaped – says Borodin.
Millions of people are forced to this kind of brutal calculation, including the top. – It's like you were a tree that was suddenly ripped out with roots … In an instant you lost everything you lived for and what you worked for. And the occupiers just took everything, took your home and gave it away from unknown people – he says.
Like many other internal refugees He currently lives in a rented apartment in the Dnieper And he did not even submit an application for compensation or a low -interest housing loan.
– I still don't know where I will finish … The war is already in the Dnieprza region, it is getting closer. So I can't buy a flat. Not time for this, because shelling destroys residential buildings in the Dnieper every day and It is likely that in the future I will have to run again – Pryma is afraid.
I’m Ashley Davis as an editor, I’m committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity and accuracy in every piece we publish. My work is driven by curiosity, a passion for truth, and a belief that journalism plays a crucial role in shaping public discourse. I strive to tell stories that not only inform but also inspire action and conversation.
