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Shattered Windows, Roofs, Lives

The smell of fried potatoes fills the small kitchen as retiree Valentyna Sukhodolska prepares dinner in her apartment in Bucha, Ukraine. For many, this would be an ordinary evening, but for Valentyna, this simple moment marks a hard-won return to normalcy. 

In March 2025, Valentyna finally moved back into her apartment, three years after it was destroyed during Russia¡¯s occupation of Bucha in March 2022. 

¡°I was left with nothing: without a spoon, a fork. Only in what I was in,¡± says Valentyna. 

The first time Valentyna entered her apartment after Ukrainian forces retook the town, the emotional weight was overwhelming.

¡°I felt something I wouldn¡¯t wish to anyone. The pain, the longing, it was unbearable,¡± Valentyna says. ¡°When my granddaughter brought me into the flat, eager to show me everything, I fainted. I couldn¡¯t bear the weight of it all.¡± 

One in every 10 homes in Ukraine has been damaged by Russia¡¯s invasion, affecting nearly 2.5 million households, incurring over $57 billion in estimated damages. Multi-family buildings (MFB) like apartment complexes in urban areas account for 80% of all damaged or destroyed housing, according to the (RDNA4). Reconstruction and recovery needs are the highest in the housing sector at almost $84 billion.

Valentyna was not the only one in her family who suffered. Her daughter, florist Iryna Korolova, also lost her home during the invasion. Two-thirds of the roof of Iryna¡¯s house was destroyed. Shrapnel tore through the dwelling¡¯s exterior, and a shell casing remained lodged in the kitchen wall. Several explosions hit the garage, wiping out the refrigeration equipment she had invested in for her flower business. 

¡°When we came back after the de-occupation, we patched the holes in the roof with our own hands: boards, plastic sheets, construction foam. At that time, we had no money and no way to cover 80 square meters of roof,¡± Iryna says.

Valentyna shows a picture on her mobile phone of the shelling damage to her living room.

eRecovery: Fast, Digital, Life-Changing 

That changed when she found the eRecovery program to help homeowners whose properties were damaged or destroyed. 

Launched in 2023, eRecovery is integrated into Diia, Ukraine¡¯s flagship e-government platform. Through the app, eligible citizens can apply for compensation, upload damage evidence, and receive funds directly. 

By mid-2025, nearly 100,000 households were compensated for self-repair of damaged windows, doors, roofs or walls, funded by the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳-supported .

Both Valentyna and Iryna received compensation for construction materials to repair their homes. 

HOPE: Scaling Impact, Restoring Lives 

Launched in August 2023, the HOPE Project has already supported nearly 100,000 households, benefiting nearly 250,000 people with $210 million in compensation for home repairs.

In addition to providing compensation for individual home repairs, the project also finances complex repairs of residential buildings in Bucha, Izyum, Makariv, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia. Nearly 200 residential buildings are slated for repairs, helping restore normalcy for over 7,200 households. 

One of those waiting to return is Svitlana Pavliienko, from the village of Havrylivka, outside Bucha. A missile hit her apartment, and for over three years, she, her son, and mother-in-law have lived in a rented space. Her husband is fighting on the front line. She passes her broken home every day on the way to work at a kindergarten.

¡°It¡¯s hard physically, financially, and emotionally,¡± she says. ¡°Every day I walk by and see the black holes where windows used to be.¡± 

Svitlana¡¯s building is now part of a HOPE-supported MFB rehabilitation, using a cluster approach, which groups damaged buildings by location and type of damage for joint repairs, including shared public spaces. Doing so lowers costs, speeds up work, and supports the broader objective of building back better with a focus on energy efficiency and universal accessibility.

Svitlana stands in the doorway of her fire damaged apartment.

¡°I always want to return home, because no matter where I am, home is the best. It is, first of all, peace, balance, and a certain confidence in the future. We really hope for this, because we still have nowhere to live. We have a child who also needs some reassurance,¡± says Svitlana. 

Through HOPE, hundreds of thousands of people across Ukraine like Iryna, Svitlana, and Valentyna will see their homes, and lives, restored. 

The HOPE Project is funded through the Ukraine Relief, Recovery, Reconstruction and Reform Trust Fund (URTF) with additional support from the Special Program for Ukraine and Moldova Recovery.