Leading communities in times of crisis

During this period, our contractors installed new windows and balcony units in over 1,000 apartments across 43 buildings, upgraded sports grounds and restored common areas in the apartment buildings damaged by blast waves. In 2025–2026, thanks to accumulated savings, UNOPS was able to carry out similar work in seven additional buildings in Mykolaiv.

Olha, 71, and Anna, 40, have lived in Mykolaiv virtually all their lives. Sharing a multi-apartment building, they were neighbours, but it wasn’t until Russia’s full-scale invasion that they actually met and got to know each other. 

“That night, on June 17, 2022, I woke up from a blast and then something heavy fell on me. The window frame. My husband, who was in the kitchen at that moment, rushed to my rescue. I suffered a concussion and could not move,” Olha recalls. “The apartment was a terrible mess, window glass scattered everywhere. A gaping open frame instead of the front door. We lived without it for days. My son wanted us to move to his place, but how could we leave the apartment and the building unattended?”
 

For many of the residents of this battered Soviet-style multi-apartment building in downtown Mykolaiv, their apartments are their only property. Despite this, many fled as the Russian army was inching towards the city in early 2022.

“Out of the twenty four households in my block, only five stayed”, says Olha. 

Anna and her baby daughter were among those who left the city temporarily.

“When I returned, I could hardly recognize the building. Everything was boarded up with plywood, no balconies, slabs hanging... When I came into the yard, it was sadness and fear that I felt. Then, slowly, people started appearing; some were moving back,” Anna recalls. 

Anna started appealing to city authorities and humanitarian organizations for help to get the lights back on in the entryway at least, because everything was boarded up and dark. At the same time, Olha and her husband mobilized some neighbours to patch up the leaky roof. 

After the city authorities included their building into the scope of reconstruction under UNOPS’s Restoring Communities and Social Infrastructure project, Olha and Anna became focal points for UNOPS engineers. Being long-term residents, the women knew everybody in the building. They knew who left and who stayed, had all phone numbers and other contact information.

“Many people had not yet returned when the repairs started, but still wanted windows and balconies in their apartments replaced. To make the entire building more energy-efficient, it was crucial that no apartment was left with boarded-up or broken windows. I was in touch with the apartments’ owners who entrusted me with their keys. When the work started, I’d hand out key sets to the UNOPS contractors in the morning and collect them at lunchtime”, says Olha. 

UNOPS has now completed the repairs, but the women’s work is far from over. Despite her full-time job in a pharmacy and duties as a mother, Anna continues to seek out opportunities to improve living conditions for her community, preparing documentation for municipal programs or initiatives from international organizations. 

Olha, being retired and of limited mobility, helps her by collecting the necessary signatures from the residents and mobilizing them to make small improvements around the building, like planting flowers.

“Through our work, we are not only restoring buildings but also rebuilding community trust and confidence,” says Oleksandr Makovyey, UNOPS civil engineer. “Community leaders, like Olha and Anna, are crucial to the effort. Seeing their dedication and energy is truly inspiring.

Housing restoration is just one component of the Restoring Communities and Social Infrastructure project, which also focuses on the stabilization and restoration of the Mykola Arkas Lyceum, a school and a historic landmark, and the construction of shelters in selected schools across the city and region. UNOPS engages exclusively Ukrainian contractors for this work to promote local economic development.