Some Notes on Ukraine’s Reconstruction

Any war eventually comes to an end. For instance, the Anglo-Zanzibar War in 1896 lasted only 38 minutes and entered the Guinness World Records as the shortest in human history. The longest were the Iberian religious wars, which took place on the Iberian Peninsula between 711 and 1492, lasting 781 years (of course, with interruptions). More details can be found at this link: https://chas.news/past/naikorotshi-i-naidovshi-viini-v-istorii-lyudstva-vid-38-hvilin-do-semi-stolit.

Someday (hopefully very soon), the full-scale war with Russia will also come to an end. And then significant efforts will be needed to rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure. Some of this work is already happening. But…

By Resolution No. 382 of April 25, 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the Procedure for implementing an experimental project to restore settlements affected by the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. The project envisaged the restoration of six settlements between 2023–2025 (the town of Borodianka and the village of Moshchun in Kyiv Oblast, the village of Posad-Pokrovske in Kherson Oblast, the city of Trostianets in Sumy Oblast, the village of Tsyrkuny in Kharkiv Oblast, and the village of Yahidne in Chernihiv Oblast).

At the start, the project included 295 restoration sites (268 housing facilities; 10 social infrastructure facilities; 8 administrative buildings; 7 transport infrastructure facilities; and 2 utility facilities).

However, by March 2025, the number had grown to 739 sites—twice as many as at the beginning. This substantial increase was driven by the expansion of housing infrastructure projects in two settlements—Posad-Pokrovske and Borodianka.

Yet already in the first year of implementation, problems arose. Due to the lack of a unified approach to selecting recovery projects, the reconstruction of Moshchun effectively dropped out of the experiment, and later, the restoration of Tsyrkuny was put on hold, as the settlement is only 25 km from the Russian border and constantly suffers from enemy shelling (from the Association: but earlier, was the proximity to the border not a concern?).

Because of regulatory gaps, significant delays in financing, instability in the leadership of the key implementing agencies (the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine and the State Agency for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure of Ukraine), and the increased number of sites to be restored, the experimental comprehensive reconstruction project failed to reach the expected scale in its two years of operation: only about 8% of the planned sites were restored. For most (64%), work began or gained momentum only at the end of last year.

Thus, the project is unlikely to be completed on time. And will it be completed at all, although the state has already allocated UAH 10.82 billion for the restoration of the selected settlements?

The final fate of the experiment may be determined by a government-initiated review launched in April this year. International experts are expected to be involved, and their conclusions will be published in the fall.

Therefore, the issue of infrastructure recovery may last quite a long time, and it is now crucial to take into account all the mistakes to avoid repeating them in future post-war reconstruction efforts in Ukraine.

Based on the research of the NGO Transparency International Ukraine dated August 21, 2025: “Without significant progress and with uncertain prospects: the experiment of comprehensive reconstruction of settlements.”

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