Broken windows: how Ukraine restores windows in affected houses

What is the problem?

How many windows were blown out due to Russian aggression against Ukraine? No one will give an exact answer. Likewise, it is unlikely to be possible to name the exact number of windows restored after the strikes.

A window in a high-rise apartment broken by an explosive wave / Illustrative photo of Mykola Tymchenko

There are various reasons for this — from the ongoing war and daily additions to the destruction statistics to differences in calculation units, as some regions count in pieces and others in square meters. Making any calculation in occupied settlements and those in the war zone is impossible.

Moreover, the state register of property damaged and destroyed as a result of hostilities, acts of terrorism, and sabotage caused by military aggression of the Russian Federation (RPZM), in which local self-government bodies enter all data on damage and losses, is closed to public access at the time of preparation of this material.

What is the solution?

Windows in the administration building broken by shelling / Illustrative photo of Mykola Tymchenko

Rubryka sent requests to the nine most affected regional centers and 11 regional military administrations and received more than 200 responses.

Most administration heads forwarded the request to city and village councils, administrations, and departments in the cities. They provided information, having collected the available data — sometimes quite extensive and detailed.

The collected information cannot be called systematic and sufficient for generalizations. Rather, it is a set of facts from which certain trends can be traced. 

Based on the answers, Rubryka has already shared how windows are restored in Kyiv and Odesa.

How does it work?

A resident in his damaged house. Photo by Mykola Tymchenko

For residents of damaged multi-apartment buildings and owners of private houses, the main program for receiving compensation for the restoration of windows and other damage to housing is the state program eRecovery, officially launched in the Diia digital governance application on May 10, 2023.

As the relevant Ministry of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine reported at the end of January, the owners of damaged housing have already spent more than ₴1 billion on repairs under eRecovery. Most of these funds were spent on purchasing building materials and glass.

The local government plays a significant role in the restoration of windows — it forms the commissions that examine the damaged objects and determine the amount of compensation under the eRecovery program.

Cleaning the glass from the window frame after the strike. Photo by Mykola Tymchenko

In Dnipro, utility companies are restoring the windows of the affected residents. They have already restored more than 6,500 damaged windows.

All these works were carried out at the expense of the Dnipro Territorial Community. At the same time, the city council does not collect and analyze information on reconstruction at the citizens' own expense and with the help of charitable funds.

A shop window covered with an OSB board in the Donetsk region / Photo by Mykola Tymchenko

A large part of the region is occupied, and active hostilities continue in the other part. The relatively peaceful part is exposed to enemy shelling, so here, in many settlements, the issue of temporarily covering window openings is more urgent than glazing.

"To keep the heat in the houses during the heating season and to prevent the destruction of the homes of the residents who evacuated to safer cities due to Russian aggression, the city leadership decided to close the damaged windows with OSB plates," says Oleksandr Honcharenko, the head of the Kramatorsk City Military Administration.

The restoration of window blocks is carried out partly with the state and private funds of the residents of the damaged buildings or charitable foundations' assistance.

To understand the scale of the necessary works, for example, in Sloviansk alone, about 10,000 damaged window openings have been closed with temporary materials since the beginning of the war.

As of mid-January 2024, 2,946 apartments, 688 apartment buildings, 887 private sector buildings, and 514 objects of various forms of ownership were damaged in the city of Zaporizhzhia. 

It is more difficult with information from the region. Since the Zaporizhchia region is currently occupied by more than 70%, hostilities in the region continue, and access of experts, designers, and builders to the territory of damaged buildings is impossible. Therefore, it is impossible to determine the state of the damaged buildings and the amount of the damage.

Local self-government bodies carry out emergency and recovery works at the expense of local budgets and other sources not prohibited by law. That is, where there is an opportunity for recovery, various sources are involved.

In accordance with the orders of the Cabinet of Ministers, in 2022, priority works on the restoration of objects were carried out on the territory of the Kyiv region, regardless of the form of ownership. They also included window replacement works. Lists of restoration objects were formed at the request of local self-government bodies.

Kyiv region's regional budget received a subvention from the state budget for purchasing window and door metal-plastic structures. The charitable organization "GEM Charitable Fund — GLOBAL EMPOWERMENT MISSION" helped to replace the windows of the affected residents of the Kyiv region.

As of January 19, 2024, payments have been made for 8,749 applications in the Kyiv region under the eRecovery program, according to Serhii Maryschen, one of Kyiv region's officials.

Yevhen Brovenko, an acting director of the city council's infrastructure department, told Rubryka that in 2022, windows in 199 residential buildings were replaced with funds from the city budget. Residents of 27 buildings independently restored windows. In 2023, windows were replaced at the expense of the city budget in 40 residential buildings, including 28 multi-apartment buildings, seven private ones, and another five in the village of Bytytsia near Sumy.

Part of the territory of the Sumy region, the nearest border with Russia, suffers from shelling every day, forcing the population to evacuate. In safer parts, recovery is taking place. Compared to other regions, clearer figures were provided here, specifically regarding broken and restored windows. 

Communities that have been restoring their windows since 2022 often reported on the help provided by the Sumy regional state (military) administration.

For example, in the Sadivsk village council, all the windows were restored in 2022 because the region provided the glass. In the Putivl city community, out of 329 damaged windows, 165 were restored using building materials provided by the Sumy Regional State Administration, 30 — at the expense of the owners, 134 — were not restored or were temporarily closed with polyethylene film and OSB boards.

As evidenced by community responses, not only the support of local councils but also the help of benefactors and the residents' efforts play a big role in reconstruction. In particular, approximately 2,057 windows in communal and private buildings and structures in Lebedyn were damaged. As of January 24, 2024, at the expense of state funds, humanitarian organizations, and community residents, almost 86% of the work on restoring windows has been completed.

A house damaged by Russian shelling in the Northern Saltivka neighborhood of Kharkiv / Photo by Mykola Tymchenko

There are communities in the Kharkiv region for which it is more important to cover the window openings with temporary materials due to the constant threat of shelling, and there are also many where reconstruction has been ongoing. As in the Sumy region, in addition to communities that do not keep statistics on windows because the law does not require it, some record all damage and restoration.

For example, the Balakliia city military administration keeps statistics on the number of windows broken due to the war. As of the beginning of 2024, 14,397 windows were damaged in the housing stock. 73.9% of them have already been restored. In particular, 62% came from regional and state budgets, 26% from international and Ukrainian charitable organizations, 10% from the community budget, and 2% from the residents' efforts, said Maksym Budyanskyi, deputy head of the Balakliia administration.

In the Izyum community, which is periodically shelled, as of the beginning of 2024, more than 3,000 window and window-balcony blocks have been replaced at the expense of international donor organizations, state and local budgets, and almost 4,000 more units are at the stage of ordering and manufacturing. One thousand four hundred twenty-six community residents received compensation at the expense of eRecovery.

In the Slobozhan settlement community, there is a program for partial reimbursement of expenses to citizens who restored windows in residential premises damaged due to Russian aggression. According to it, ₴313 thousand were allocated to the residents from the settlement budget. Also, 1,074,982 square meters of window blocks were provided to the affected residents of the community.

In Kherson, since October of 2023, the Program for Prevention of Accidents and Disasters (including emergencies) has been operating in the housing stock, social infrastructure, enterprises, communal facilities, institutions, and organizations. It makes it possible to provide buildings with temporary protection from atmospheric effects until the issue of carrying out comprehensive restoration works is resolved.

During this program's validity period, the department of urban economy received applications for 630 objects (8,836 damaged windows, 97 roofs) of both the housing stock and communal institutions, enterprises, institutions, and organizations of communal ownership of the community.

As of January 17, 2024, eliminating the consequences of shelling, the workers closed 5,337 window openings with OSB boards, 25 roofs, and 229 objects.

₴7,500,000 has been earmarked for implementing this program in 2023 from the budget of Kherson. As of January 1, 2024, UAH ₴6,499,071 was used.

According to the information of the district councils of Kherson, with the beginning of the massive shelling of Kherson, the employees of the executive committees keep registers of damaged property, according to which 6,061 windows of private buildings were damaged in 2022-2023.

On the territory of the Kherson region, there is a regional communal emergency and rescue service, which works exclusively on temporarily closing damaged windows using OSB boards and construction film, reported Olha Malyarchuk, the deputy head of the regional state administration.

According to the statistics of the regional emergency and rescue service, as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, 43,583 windows were broken in the buildings of enterprises, institutions, organizations, and residential buildings in the liberated territories of the Kherson region as of January 15, 2024.

Malyarchuk also reported that OSB boards were purchased with state budget funds and received as humanitarian aid in the percentage ratio of 86.68% and 13.32%; construction film was purchased with funds from the regional budget.

The Chernihiv City Council informed Rubryka that they decided to provide enquirers with only general quantitative and qualitative indicators of damaged objects so they cannot be identified.

As of the beginning of 2024, 943 apartment buildings and 3,220 private and country houses were damaged and destroyed in the territory of the Chernihiv community.

Also, the deputy mayor of the city, Viktoria Pekur, informed that, in accordance with the program of partial compensation of expenses for the restoration of destroyed and damaged windows in multi-apartment residential buildings, in 2022, 647 households in Chernihiv received compensation for the amount of  ₴8,143,059, and in 2023, 109 — for the amount of ₴1,356,897.

As a result of the aggression of the Russian Federation in the Chernihiv region, nine cultural institutions were destroyed. According to the information available in the Department of Culture and Tourism, Nationalities and Religions of the Chernihiv Regional State Administration, about 300 windows were destroyed (damaged) due to the war.

"Since today the state and regional budgets are aimed at security and defense, as well as at the restoration of critical and social infrastructure, the damaged windows are mostly restored with the funds of benefactors," the director of the department Lyudmila Zamai told Rubryka.

As of January 1, 2024, 1,993 broken windows were counted in educational institutions under regional control. To date, 1,472 of them (74%) have already been restored, in particular at the expense of:

• state budget — 650 (33%);
• charitable organizations — 419 (21%);
• own funds — 367 (18%);
• local budget — 36 (2%).

This was reported by acting Olena Soronovych, Head of the Department of Education and Science of the Chernihiv Regional State Administration.

Many responses from the region's communities also indicate a large share of window restoration by the residents themselves.

For example, the Nizhyn City Council reported that it is impossible to establish the exact number of restored windows, as many of them were restored with the residents' funds and the funds of charitable organizations.

Residential buildings in settlements close to the Russian Federation border are constantly under fire and are practically not restored.

As you can see, it is difficult to unify such disparate information. Yet, it is necessary to try: people need to understand what they can count on and what and from whom the assistance can come. It also depends on whether the local government has connections with benefactors.

Making such data publicly available and understandable is one of the tasks of the Recovery Window, an association of media, non-governmental organizations, and analytical centers, which became operational in January 2024.

The network aims to become a "single window" for highlighting the recovery processes throughout Ukraine, and this text is a small contribution to its creation.

We created this material as a member of the Recovery Window network. Find out everything about the recovery of the affected regions of Ukraine on recovery.win platform.

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Photo: Rubryka