Ukrainian grain tests the solidarity of Europe with Ukraine and within the EU

Despite the prolonged hostilities and constant shelling, some Ukrainian cities are already boldly dreaming about the future recovery. Together with American architects, the communities of Irpen and Mariupol are preparing large-scale plans for the reconstruction of more sustainable and modern cities. City mayors spoke about these plans in Washington during a local diplomacy forum in the Meridian Center.

Voice of America journalist Maria Ulyanovska spoke with city mayors and architects about the priorities and cost of reconstruction, how to return investments in Irpin, as well as how to rebuild Mariupol, which is already heavily populated by Russians.

Irpin is a pilot project for the reconstruction of Ukrainian cities

Once a peaceful suburb of the capital became a symbol of war destruction. During the hostilities in Kyiv Region in March 2022, the Russians shelled Irpin for almost a month. By calculations city ​​Council, 1,602 houses were destroyed, more than 12,000 were damaged, and 16,358 residents were left homeless.

Despite this, life is slowly returning to the city. According to the mayor Oleksandr Markushyn, 85% of residents have already returned home. In addition, as in 2014, Irpin hosts internally displaced persons fleeing the territories occupied by Russia. In 2022, the city became home to another 30,000 immigrants.

Markushyn says that about 100,000 people live in the city now, they all need somewhere to live, and therefore the main task facing the city is to rebuild as quickly as possible.

Since Irpin was one of the first liberated Ukrainian cities, it is being turned into a pilot reconstruction project, which is likely to become an example for the reconstruction of Kharkiv, Mariupol, Mykolaiv and Kherson.

After the end of hostilities, the city conducted an expert analysis of the destruction, created an investment passport and is working on a large-scale recovery plan.

“The most important thing is not just to rebuild a quarter of the city, but to calculate for 20 years ahead how many people the city can accommodate, what kind of housing is needed, what kind of infrastructure and transport, water supply, drainage, electricity supply. Calculate how the city can support itself.” — says Markushyn.

Who is financing the reconstruction?

The question of finding funds is really relevant. Currently, the mayor of Irpenya says, the state does not have a budget for large-scale urban reconstruction. Therefore, in order to find money for restoration, Markushyn founded the public organization “Fund for restoration of Irpen”.

In addition to the mayor, the fund is also supervised by a people’s deputy Sergey Taruta and the head of the Investment Council of Irpen, former mayor of the city Volodymyr Karpluk, who was repeatedly accused of illegal enrichment. In February 2020, the prosecutor’s office handed over to court charges against Karpluk for embezzling money during the construction of parks, but on February 15, 2023, the case closedbecause the terms of the pre-trial investigation have expired.

Markushyn and Karpluk also founded the “Irpin reconstruction summit” working group, which includes about 200 Ukrainian and international project managers, architects and designers, who developed 22 project-architectural proposals for the reconstruction and reconstruction of critical infrastructure facilities.

The team of two mayors has already succeeded attract foreign funds – the Portuguese city of Cascais transferred half a million euros for the construction of a kindergarten in Irpen. And the UN project “Ukrainian Humanitarian Fund” financed reconstruction of four apartment buildings. In addition, charitable donations for the reconstruction of Irpen collect on the Patreon platform.

And in order to bring investments and business back to the city, the mayors also plan to build the largest technology park in the Kyiv region. For this, the city council will allocate 350 hectares of land of state importance between Irpen and the village of Mykhailivka-Rubezhivka.

“This technology park will be a huge budget-generating enterprise not only for our city, but also for the Kyiv region. The only condition for attracting business is to be registered and pay taxes in Irpen,” says Markushyn.

What do people need in a liberated city?

To help the city rebuild meaningfully, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) attracted international architectural bureau Gensler.

From February 22 to March 2, 2023, Gensler researchers spoke with the residents of Irpen to understand what their priorities are for reconstruction and how to rebuild the city in the future.

Polls showed that 91% of Irpin residents were satisfied with the quality of life before the full-scale invasion and 65% want the reconstruction to reflect what the city looked like before the invasion. People consider a well-thought-out security system and restoration of Irpen’s economic capacity to be the main priority.

“Recovery begins with listening and empathy, as well as with a deep understanding of how people feel, what their aspirations are, their vision of the future,” says Diane Hoskins, CEO of Gensler. “People here know that the victory is not complete until the reconstruction is complete, because only then can they live their lives again.”

To leave a memory of the war

Surveys have shown that the citizens want to perpetuate the memory of what happened in the form of a memorial that will be integrated into the city. And the Irpin Bridge, which was blown up by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the first week of the full-scale invasion to stop the advance of the Russian army towards the capital, and which was the main evacuation route from the occupied territories of Kyiv region, 41% of Irpin residents want to rebuild it in the same place according to a new design.

The researchers were most surprised by the fact that 8 out of 10 residents of Irpin are optimistic about the city’s future.

“No one would blame people if they were sad, depressed, and did not feel hope. But we saw incredible resilience, pride of these people. And the desire to rebuild, to return to my past life,” Hoskins added.

Mariupol — Reborn

Gensler architects are working on the restoration of another symbolic city — Mariupol. Despite the fact that the city is still under occupation, the mayor’s office is developing a “Mariupol reborn” revival plan, which should become part of the Donetsk region’s recovery strategy after the war.

The city is working on the Mariupol reborn plan together with USAID, international financial organizations and the Ukrainian company SCM Rinat Akhmetova. Currently, experts from the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) are helping to calculate the damage — after all, 90% of the city has been destroyed. All work is done remotely.

“Today we have a certain understanding of what no longer exists, what has been destroyed: which school, which hospital, which building. And the World Bank and the EBRD have certain mechanisms and tools to calculate it, the mayor explains Vadim Boychenko. – We want the people of Mariupol to look at the city through the eyes of their unborn children – what should we do to make them feel comfortable here? I personally see a new city that preserves history, it is a new Singapore that we have to build in Ukraine.”

According to preliminary estimates, about 14.5 billion dollars are needed to rebuild Mariupol. After the conclusions of international partners, the city will be able to calculate the economic basis of the future of Mariupol in 1-5-10 years

But the main task facing the mayor is how to bring life back to the city where at least 22,000 people died. According to the calculations of the city council, during the 86 days of the blockade, almost 200,000 Mariupol residents left the city. Another 120,000 continue to live under occupation.

At the same time, the city has already begun to be inhabited by new “residents”, informs mayor’s adviser Petro Andryushchenko. The activity of the occupation administration in Mariupol poses the same questions to Ukraine as eight years of occupation of Crimea: how to return the city ideologically? How to find understanding with those who began to cooperate with the occupiers?

“It will no longer be like it was before 2014,” says Boychenko. “Today, all residents of Mariupol have already understood that the neighbor is an aggressor state, and the main struggle of our state is for independence. Mariupol was and will be a Ukrainian city, and those people who joined the occupiers today will step down as soon as we approach our borders.”

Previous polls by Gensler and the Mariupol city council showed that 90% of Mariupol residents are ready to return as soon as Ukraine liberates the city. The mayor has an ambitious plan: he is going to return to Ukrainian Mariupol by the end of this year.

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