While an international conference starts this Wednesday in London, to raise funds to rebuild Ukraine, the inhabitants of certain cities are worried about not seeing the construction sites progress.
The European Union announces 50 billion euros in aid for the war in Ukraine, while an international conference is being held this Wednesday and Thursday in London, with the aim of raising funds for the reconstruction of the country. Work has already begun in the regions liberated from Russian occupation. This is for example the case in Hostomel, northwest of kyiv. This city was largely damaged by the fighting in the first weeks of the conflict, and the much-promised reconstruction is long overdue.
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Behind the palisades of the site are aligned piles of rubble, several meters high. Concrete on one side, wood, metal, gravel sorted separately. Kyrylo Chernychuk works for the French company Neo-Eco, responsible for rebuilding this devastated district: “These building materials come from the buildings that were here and were destroyed. More than 90% of the materials recovered during their dismantling will be reused to build the new buildings”he points out.
Construction sites at a standstill
Five gutted buildings have been knocked down, and must therefore be rebuilt using this rubble recycling technique. Not really the norm so far in Ukraine, as Kyrylo Chernychuk explains: “It is estimated that the volume of rubble generated by the war exceeded 1.6 billion tons. Before the waste, construction sites were thrown in the woods, in the fields or at best in landfills. But 1.6 billion tons , and soon more, if we throw them in the forests, then we will have more forests! It will be an ecological disaster.”
Neo-Eco has completed the demolition work, but the site has since been stopped due to blockages in the Ukrainian bureaucracy. The inhabitants of the district, like Raïssa, have a fairly clear idea of what gets stuck: “We are all angry, where do all these millions who are sent here go? Besides, it is not the State that is rebuilding housing, but it is the French or other foreign patrons! What do our leaders do with this money that is sent to us? By the time they share the cake, we have already had to live a year in the cold!she denounces, in a country still plagued by corruption.
Irpine and Butcha, showcases of reconstruction
The city of Hostomel has just seen its second mayor in a year dismissed for suspicion of embezzlement of funds allocated for reconstruction. Kyrylo CHernychuk, from the French company Neo-Eco, has no more illusions than Raïssa: “Corruption in Ukraine has unfortunately never disappeared, and I even think that with the war it has increased”.
Residents of Hostomel themselves recall that it was largely thanks to the battle that destroyed their neighborhood that kyiv was able to repel the advance of the Russians last year. They are hoping for some recognition as the neighboring towns of Irpine and Butcha have become showcases for Ukrainian reconstruction.