Launch of third stage of program expected in 2025 - MP

This was announced by Olena Shulyak, MP, Chair of the Committee on the Organization of State Power, Regional Development, Local Self-Government and Urban Planning, head of the Servant of the People political party, in an interview with Ukrinform.

“This year, we planned to launch the third stage of the program, which is very important and expected by our representatives of the temporarily occupied territories. This is perhaps one of the biggest challenges for the Restoration program - to meet the needs of Ukrainians whose housing in the TOT has been destroyed,” she said.

According to the MP, solving this problem turned out to be very difficult, because it was necessary to determine how to record the destruction in the temporarily occupied territories, how to confirm that these destructions were the result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, and how to enter the information into the relevant registers.

The politician recalled that in 2023, the Ministry of Reconstruction launched a pilot project in Melitopol, which was successful.

Shulyak emphasized that modern technical means, such as satellite imagery and other technologies, allow to record the destruction, as well as determine when it occurred, and enter this information into the reporting registers.

The head of the parliamentary committee noted that based on the experience of Melitopol, it can be argued that the same methods can be applied to other cities, such as Mariupol, Bakhmut, Soledar and dozens of other damaged settlements that are currently under temporary occupation.

“Unfortunately, this year I do not see the activation of the third stage of the program, but I hope that next year the situation will change,” she emphasized.

As Ukrinform reported, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, about 60 million square meters of housing have been destroyed or significantly damaged as a result of Russian aggression.