Ukrainian cities are gradually recovering after the devastation of war. Some are doing it with remarkable speed. One striking example of rapid recovery is Borodyanka – a city that, according to local officials and architects, was left with virtually no undamaged buildings. Today, it is rebuilding at an astonishing pace. The houses along Central Street, which were horrifically destroyed by enemy airstrikes…
…have long since been demolished and rebuilt, taking into account new handicapped-access standards.
Even the old Soviet-era five-story apartment blocks have been thoroughly renovated. They now resemble the tidy, energy-efficient homes of Central Europe or Germany. Their internal infrastructure has also been significantly modernized.
We have previously reported on active reconstruction efforts in the Chernihiv region – particularly in the legendary Yahidne – and on Chernihiv’s own participation in national recovery programs.
Such striking progress stems from three key factors: efficient use of the municipal budget, active engagement of foreign donors, and strong support from the Ukrainian state, which prioritizes rebuilding the cities most heavily damaged by Russian bombs and missiles.
However, not every city has been so fortunate.
Some communities, devastated by prolonged fighting, received little outside funding and were forced to rebuild on their own. In some of them, entire streets still look as they did three years ago – in the aftermath of battle.
Why the difference?
The city in the previous photo is Okhtyrka – a Hero City.
The title “Hero City” is an official Ukrainian state designation awarded to communities that showed extraordinary bravery and resilience in resisting Russian invasion.
This small town of 40,000 in northeastern Ukraine bore the brunt of Russia’s early assault in February 2022 – and stopped it. Despite repeated attempts to break through toward the Poltava region, Russian forces failed. Okhtyrka endured a month-long siege but never surrendered. For its courage, it was among the first to receive the honor.
“Everyone stood up to defend the city. Words like ‘many’ or ‘few’ are irrelevant. On the very first day, hundreds of men came to us asking to find them weapons so they could defend,” says Deputy Mayor Nadiya Pytiukova.
When Russian forces retreated from northern Ukraine in April 2022, the scale of destruction became clear – and it was immense.
“Almost all our schools and kindergartens were damaged. The destruction – shattered glass, broken frames. Thermobaric bombs did their job… It’s hard to calculate percentages when so little remains intact. It’s hard to assess damage when a building seems fine, but a year later the roof leaks – because the blast wave lifted the nails, and it began to leak, even though from the outside it looked normal,” says Pytiukova.
Yet Okhtyrka never received large-scale aid from the state or international donors. The scattered nature of the damage made it difficult to design a comprehensive reconstruction project – unlike Borodyanka, where rebuilding could focus on a single central area.
“It’s just harder to make a ‘showcase’ out of our city,” shares one of the city officials.
What to do?
With the support of UN agencies, city authorities developed a reconstruction plan for damaged facilities – itself an important achievement. Local architects, led by Mykhailo Kovalov, head of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture, received international training and created several inclusive urban design projects. But implementation has been slow, largely due to funding shortages and Okhtyrka’s proximity to the Russian border.
Working with international donors proved even more difficult.
“It’s about our inability to lie. Right now, the policy is – whoever lies better, gets more. How can we guarantee a donor that we’ll preserve their asset after it’s rebuilt? Meanwhile, someone else will say, ‘Build it for us, and we’ll preserve it’ – and they’ll get the funding…” says the deputy mayor.
Despite all this, Okhtyrka has rebuilt much using its own limited budget. The main street has been repaired, many businesses have reopened, and new windows have been installed in residential and administrative buildings. Apartment blocks that were not critically damaged have been repaired through local efforts.
Young people are returning, and the city has even become a refuge for internally displaced persons – especially residents of Kharkiv who flee during heavy shelling.
Okhtyrka continues to pursue creative and community-oriented initiatives. One of the most striking is a skate park inside an old 19th-century steam mill.
This unique youth space was created by local enthusiasts, led by Pavlo Ihnatchenko, with partial support from international donors.
“We’ve been working toward this for a long time. And it’s not just about skaters – it’s a universal youth space, a place where many gather regularly. It’s one of the hubs that keeps them here, helps them connect. We’ve been building it since 2017, but really pushed it through after 2022 – international donors helped a bit with materials, and we repaired the premises ourselves and completed our hub,” says Pavlo.
There are many cities like Okhtyrka across Ukraine – places such as Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Bashtanka, Voznesensk, and Mykolaiv – that have achieved remarkable progress largely on their own. Each of them will continue to seek new meaning after the war, because none will ever be quite the same again.