Housing restoration is not only about building new houses, but also about ensuring the sustainability and energy efficiency of the future housing stock. This was stated by Oleksii Kuleba, Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration of Ukraine and Minister for Communities and Territories Development, at a meeting with Ros Eales, Director of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Department of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

“Today, more than 10% of Ukraine’s housing stock is destroyed or damaged. This has affected almost 2 million Ukrainian families. More than 4.6 million of our citizens have become IDPs. That is why effective coordination of housing reconstruction and support for IDPs are in the focus of the Ministry’s recovery,” said Oleksii Kuleba.

The Minister stressed that housing restoration is not only about building new houses, but also about ensuring the sustainability and energy efficiency of the future housing stock. He also briefed his counterpart on the Ministry’s priorities – urgent restoration in the following areas: water supply in Mykolaiv region, provision of housing, creation of appropriate conditions for IDPs, decentralised energy and heat supply, and protection of energy facilities.

Oleksii Kuleba thanked the UK for the support and assistance it is providing to Ukraine today.

“The UK has demonstrated its readiness to help in various areas, which will help speed up the recovery,” he said.

The Head of the State Agency for the Restoration and Infrastructure Development, Serhii Sukhomlyn, spoke about the Agency’s priorities and areas of cooperation.

For her part, Ros Eales informed about her interest in localising British businesses in Ukrainian communities and plans to support small and medium-sized businesses.

She also expressed her readiness to support training for municipal officials.

“Support for urgent needs should lead to economic recovery,” said the UK representative.

She also said that the UK was interested in ensuring that energy decentralisation was carried out in line with environmental requirements.

The meeting was held as part of the 11th meeting of the Ukraine Donor Platform (UDP) in Rome, Italy.