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State Policy for Development of Ukraine from Nataliia Kozlovska, Deputy Minister for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine🏗️

✅Within the framework of RECOVERY CONSTRUCTION FORUM 2.0, which took place on November 14, 2023 in Warsaw (Poland), a separate block on the state policy of reconstruction of Ukraine was held.

Due to the military aggression of the russian federation, Ukraine faced unprecedented challenges and large-scale destruction. But our state continues to function at a high level and ensure compliance with the rights and freedoms of citizens, provide services and gradually restore damaged and destroyed housing.

💬 "In matters of reconstruction, we cannot focus exclusively on wartime. There has been a war in Ukraine for almost a year and eight months, and this is our new reality. Of course, we want the destroyed homes, public facilities, enterprises, and infrastructure to be rebuilt as soon as possible," Nataliia Kozlovska said.

The armed aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine caused a huge internal displacement of Ukrainian citizens, currently officially registered internally displaced persons in Ukraine amount to 4.9 million people.

🔢According to the World Bank's rapid assessment of the damage and restoration needs, Ukraine's need for restoration and restoration is 411 billion US dollars, which is almost 383 billion euros. This estimate covers the year of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, starting from February 24, 2022 to February 24, 2023. This is the kind of large-scale destruction Ukraine suffered during the year of the war, but currently the country has been in a state of war for a year and eight months.

The greatest direct damage was caused in the following areas:

✔️housing (over 50 billion dollars);

✔️transport (over 6 billion dollars);

✔️ trade and industry (about 11 billion dollars);

✔️agriculture (about 9 billion dollars).

At the same time, as of November 8, 2023, according to the Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property, as a result of russia's armed aggression, about 745,000 objects have been destroyed in Ukraine, including administrative buildings, housing, education, health care, enterprises, objects of life support and others.

Ukraine is rebuilding in the conditions of wartime and hostilities. Thus, the state budget, starting last year, financed the restoration of thousands of objects, in particular, housing, social, engineering and transport infrastructure, which suffered significant damage, which could be quickly restored.

🌐In addition, based on the results of joint work with the World Bank, the HOPE project was introduced, which helps citizens restore residential properties. Compensation is currently provided to citizens for the restoration of objects that have minor damage. Funds are provided to citizens, with which they can rebuild their homes, and as of now, over 25,000 families have been processed and provided with funds, amounting to about UAH 1.9 billion. And people use these funds to restore their homes and thus have the opportunity to prepare for the heating season in time. According to Nataliia Kozlovska, this is the first stage of a large component of compensation for the restoration of houses.

The second stage of compensation involves the provision of monetary assistance for the purchase of housing to those citizens whose housing is destroyed and also the provision of assistance to those citizens whose housing has more significant damage.

💬“We hope that this project, like the first component, will have quite positive results. We have a clear understanding that in many cases post-war reconstruction will take place with the understanding that it is not necessary to rebuild what was destroyed in the same form and in the same locations, but to rethink the infrastructure according to the principle of "Recovery and further development in the post-war period", - reported the Deputy Minister for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine.

For this purpose, the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine (Ministry for Restoration) will implement and use new educational practices of planning, development and European standards of quality of life, also resource green construction, circular economy and sustainable inclusive development of cities. In order to stimulate the recovery and revival of the economy, the Government of Ukraine has already implemented a program for the relocation of enterprises from the regions affected by hostilities. And the internal displacement of citizens and enterprises caused major changes in the host territorial communities. Not only in quantitative indicators, but also in indicators of economic development.

Thus, the Ministry of Reconstruction introduced programs of comprehensive reconstruction, integrated documents that combine the understanding of socio-economic development, spatial planning and infrastructure, so that these components support each other, creating a synergy effect.

💬 "Regional programs should become the basis for communities, and the practice of international projects in the regions confirms this. In addition, as part of the implementation of the city-planning cadastre at the state level, we plan to digitize regional planning schemes. On the one hand, to fill the cadastre, and on the other - to ensure their further updating, including on the basis of comprehensive restoration programs.

👍This is exactly our current philosophy of reconstruction. We do not recall it for the post-war period, but on the other hand, we give a vision of the next steps in the realities of wartime. Such an approach allows us to both respond to today's challenges and create prerequisites for the return of Ukrainian refugees, the restoration of the economy, and the development of Ukraine as part of a democratic, civilized world," emphasized Nataliia Kozlovska.

Work is currently underway to harmonize Ukrainian legislation with European legislation. It is good that Ukraine has certain achievements on the way to the main goal. Since January of this year, the European regulation on construction products, the so-called 305 Regulation, has been implemented in Ukraine. And the Law of Ukraine "On Providing Construction Products on the Market" entered into force in full. All harmonized European standards — technical specifications for construction products — have been adopted. Currently, the government is working on the formation of a full-fledged quality assurance infrastructure in terms of equipping testing laboratories, their accreditation, the appointment of conformity assessment bodies and technical assessment bodies. In addition, the basic requirements for buildings and structures are defined in Ukraine at the legislative level and fully correspond to European ones. All parts of the Eurocodes have also been accepted in Ukraine, and a mechanism for their practical application during the design of the construction of facilities is provided for.

Another important step is digitalization of construction processes. The E-construction electronic system has been implemented at the national level. All construction procedures, project documentation, examination results, permits, declarations, indicators of construction products are carried out electronically.

💬“So, we are very grateful for the support we currently have from the international community in this terrible war and we greatly appreciate the assistance provided. Including political, expert, advisory, military assistance, which allows us to look to the future in these difficult times", - thanked Nataliia Kozlovska.

Unfortunately, as a result of the armed aggression of the russian federation, Ukraine is experiencing the greatest destruction in Europe since World War II. According to the information received from the regional administrations, more than half a million tons of waste from the destructions have been generated so far. This is a huge number that is constantly increasing and does not include information from the temporarily occupied territories. Of course, the situation with the waste from the demolitions needs appropriate regulation. At the legislative level, the issue of waste management from destruction is regulated by the Law of Ukraine "On Waste Management", which came into effect this year and which implements the provisions of the EU Framework Directive on waste. Last year, the corresponding Order was adopted, which defines the algorithm of actions for local selfgovernments, lays down aspects of waste reuse and their processing. Despite the fact that the problem is new on a national scale, there is an understanding of the threats and opportunities faced today in the process of managing demolition waste and the corresponding work is being done. According to the Deputy Minister  for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, the goal of the Government of Ukraine is to achieve a high level of waste processing within the framework of the development of a circular economy. Today, in the regions, their records are kept, they are placed in temporary storage places, in order to minimize the possible negative impact on the natural environment and the health of the population.

🧱The government is also working on the possibility of using individual components of waste in the recovery process. Together with international partners, issues of organization of pre-sorting with further preparation for reuse are being worked out. The European experience of production of construction products from construction waste is studied. Currently, the process is slightly complicated by the fact that the waste is mixed and cannot be reused without proper preparation, but work on this is ongoing. Modern approaches to construction waste management and demolition waste should become not only safe for the natural environment, but also a source of resources for the production of construction products with the possibility of using individual components in road construction and land planning.

It is also important to mention the support of international partners in this area. These are the Governments of Japan and Germany, international organizations and independent experts who help Ukraine work on this issue. One of the key principles of recovery is the transparency of all reconstruction processes, which is necessary not only for partners, but also, above all, for all Ukrainians. 

The Ministry of Reconstruction has developed the DREAM ecosystem, which is built on the principle "Everyone sees everything" and aims to ensure full transparency and accountability of infrastructure restoration processes from planning to commissioning. In this, DREAM will integrate with 9 existing IT tools and systems. Some of them are already working. These are the Register of damaged and reduced property, the Prozorro system, the Portal of the state electronic system in the field of construction, Diya, the Register of Legal Entities, the Electronic Treasury System, the Branch Management System for Infrastructure Reconstruction, etc.

💬"We believe that as part of the post-war reconstruction, Ukraine will become the largest construction site in Europe. And programs for the comprehensive restoration of cities and villages will become models of balanced planning and development," said Nataliia Kozlovska.

You can watch the video in Ukrainian at the link: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1007980466934560 

WE WILL WIN AND BUILD EVERYTHING!💪

TOGETHER TO VICTORY!

GLORY TO UKRAINE!💙💛