👁 Repairs of common spaces

© UNHCR/Viktoria Tiutiunnyk

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, complements the Government of Ukraine’s compensation programme by helping to restore common areas in war-damaged apartment buildings. This will make families eligible for compensation and allow them to begin rebuilding homes and lives.

Since 2023, UNHCR has carried out or supported repairs in more than 100 multi-story residential buildings – this has enabled over 7,500 households to become eligible to apply for compensation under the Government’s eVidnovlennia programme.

Under national regulations, apartment owners can only apply for compensation once the common areas – such as roofs, staircases, entrances, or windows – have been restored and declared safe. In many war-damaged buildings, the cost of repairing these shared spaces is too high for residents to manage on their own, leaving entire buildings excluded from the compensation mechanism.

By repairing these common spaces, UNHCR addresses one of the most practical and immediate barriers to compensation. The repairs are implemented through a combination of contractor-led works and the provision of construction materials to local authorities, complementing the community-led efforts.

In 2025 alone, UNHCR helped with repairs across Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Mykolaiv regions, making over 1,700 families – in total 3,250 people – eligible to apply for compensation.

This work is part of UNHCR’s broader approach to ensure that displaced and war-affected people in Ukraine gain access to the Government’s vital compensation scheme which also entails provision of free legal aid.

👁 Repairs of common spaces

© UNHCR/Viktoria Tiutiunnyk

Together with local NGO partners, UNHCR provides legal counseling to help people restore their housing, land, and property rights, recover essential documents, confirm ownership, or complete inheritance procedures required for compensation claims. In 2025, UNHCR delivered 39,000 legal consultations, helping thousands navigate procedures and overcome administrative obstacles with over 2,200 cases successfully resolved to restore documentation or ownership rights.

"Through our integrated approach to shelter and protection interventions, we are making sure that no one is left behind and that people are supported to access the Government’s essential compensation programme, which we know serves as a lifeline to many families whose homes have been damaged by Russian attacks. By combining practical repairs with legal aid and our strategic advocacy, we help remove barriers for thousands of people, delivering tangible results today and helping to prepare communities for future reparations and recovery work," says Bernadette Castel-Hollingsworth, UNHCR’s Representative in Ukraine.

The repairs of common spaces are part of UNHCR’s larger shelter programme in Ukraine, which supports war-affected and displaced families through emergency shelter materials provided immediately after attacks (more than 565,000 people supported since 2022) and durable house repairs (close to 55,000 houses repaired since 2022).

UNHCR’s response in Ukraine is made possible thanks to the generous support of government and private donors. This includes top donors contributing specifically to the Ukraine operation as well as those providing critical flexible funding to UNHCR globally: Denmark, the European Union, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

More info:

UNHCR Ukraine Brief: People-Centred Recovery in Action – Unlocking Compensation