Commentary by Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration of Ukraine, Minister for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, on the eVidnovlennia state financial assistance programme, which has been in operation for six months:

On 10 May 2023, the first stage of the programme was launched - this is state financial assistance for repairs for Ukrainians whose homes were damaged due to ongoing russian aggression. Thanks to this programme, more than 23,000 Ukrainian families have already received funds to restore their homes.

First and foremost, families of military personnel, people with disabilities and large families received funds.

In total, more than 56,000 people applied for the programme. 30% of the programme participants are aged over 60, and the oldest applicant is 101 years old.

eVidnovlennia is a highly digitalised service. This allows us not only to simplify the documentation procedure for programme participants, but also to overcome some of the scepticism we experienced at the start. They said that the funds would be provided only to the "chosen ones", that the application process would be too long and require additional confirmations and certificates. Thousands of examples prove that everyone who filled out the application correctly has received funds.

And if they have any questions, applicants can call the hotline - 1545 (button 2). Over the six months of the eVidnovlennia programme's operation, the Government call centre staff handled about 70,000 calls. The most frequent question was about registering property rights in the State Register of Property Rights. If the documents are available, it is easy to do this through any state registrar. If the documents are not available, the confirmation takes place in court.

The Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development, together with other relevant ministries and MPs, is currently working on amendments to the legislation to simplify the confirmation procedure.

In addition to the repair assistance programme, we have also launched and are preparing for the first payments to the following programmes:

• A programme of housing certificates for people whose homes were completely destroyed;
• Major repairs of damaged buildings where the amount of funds required for reconstruction exceeds UAH 200,000.

We are working on compensation for the destroyed housing that remained in the occupied territory and a programme of payments for citizens who have made repairs at their own expense.

The next step in eVidnovlennia is to launch the sale and purchase of new housing in exchange for housing certificates, which are given to those whose homes were completely destroyed as a result of russian aggression.

As always, I would like to thank my team and the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, the World Bank and the TAPAS Project/Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services for cooperation.