Almost five years into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, millions of Ukrainians remain displaced, while millions more are living in homes damaged by the war.
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As displacement stretches from months into years, the humanitarian response is adapting to find people-driven solutions. In some cases, it is possible to make damaged homes habitable again, in others, the focus is on helping people put down roots elsewhere.
For the tens of thousands of women, men, boys and girls still living in collective accommodation, support to transition to more sustainable housing solutions is becoming increasingly vital, not only for stability, but also for their own mental health, sense of agency and ability to rebuild their lives.
The latest Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment undertaken by the World Bank Group, Government of Ukraine, European Commission, and United Nations, estimates that 14 per cent of Ukraine’s housing stock was damaged or destroyed by the end of 2025, affecting more than three million families.
Housing is now one of the country’s biggest recovery needs, with almost €77 billion ($90 billion USD) needed for reconstruction and recovery.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is responding across different stages of displacement, with support from the European Union – a major donor to UNHCR’s response in Ukraine. Since 2022, the EU has provided over €264 million ($310 million USD) in funding, including support for emergency assistance and winter needs.
Repairing what remains
For Lidiia, staying home meant enduring years in a house scarred by shelling, with significant damage to the roof and windows.
She and her adult daughter, who has mobility difficulties, remained in Izium in the Kharkiv region after Russia’s full-scale invasion and lived through almost six months of occupation.
Living on pension income, the family could not afford to carry out the repairs themselves. UNHCR and its NGO partner Caritas have since repaired the roof and are replacing the windows, alongside work on the heating system, electricity and bathroom.
This is one of the most immediate forms of housing support: to help people who have remained in, or returned to, war-affected communities to make their homes liveable.
Since 2022, UNHCR has repaired more than 62,000 war-damaged homes like Lidiia’s by carrying out renovation works or by providing construction materials and cash assistance to cover their cost.
But for many displaced people, returning home is not an immediate option.
Building a life elsewhere
For many families, displacement has meant struggling to establish new homes in another part of the country, after fleeing frontline areas or being displaced from occupied territories.
Raisa and her family fled their home in 2022 and initially rented elsewhere in the Zaporizhzhia region. In 2024, they moved into a house under a rent-to-own agreement, eventually purchasing the property in March 2026.
UNHCR and Caritas, whose support includes rehabilitating abandoned or newly purchased houses, helped repair the roof and replace windows and doors, as well as adapting part of the house to the family’s needs.
For families like Raisa’s, housing support is not about preparing for an imminent return. It is about making a life elsewhere more stable and sustainable.
That is increasingly relevant as displacement becomes protracted. Around 3.9 million people remain internally displaced in Ukraine, with 69 per cent having been displaced for more than two years, according to UNHCR’s figures.
Moving beyond collective accommodation
For others, the next step is moving out of temporary or collective accommodation.
When Nataliia and her visually-impaired son fled the occupied city of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, they were initially evacuated to western Ukraine before moving to a collective site in Dnipropetrovsk region.
They were among 70,000 vulnerable internally displaced people accommodated in 1,500 collective sites across Ukraine, since the start of the full-scale war.
Nataliia later applied for a programme offering temporary housing, created through partnership between UNHCR and local authorities. She and her son have now moved into their own property, where having a dedicated space has also supported her son’s rehabilitation.
She hopes the greater stability will eventually allow her to be reunited with her elderly mother, who remains in collective accommodation in Dnipro.
Alongside emergency shelter assistance provided immediately after aerial attacks, UNHCR is working with national and local authorities to expand longer-term options, including renovating unused buildings, adapting public premises, providing rental support and rehabilitating homes for displaced families.
Housing as part of recovery
Housing alone cannot resolve Ukraine’s displacement crisis. Security, livelihoods and access to essential services all play a role in determining whether people can return and rebuild their lives.
But after almost five years of full-scale war, the humanitarian response increasingly has to address people at very different points in their displacement journeys: those who need urgent repairs, those establishing lives elsewhere and those looking to move beyond temporary accommodation.
An effective humanitarian response increasingly must work on two fronts at once: supporting those in need of urgent repairs, as well as helping those who have been displaced for years to establish more stable lives.
The scale of the housing challenge means continued support remains necessary, enabling a balanced response that addresses both immediate needs and longer-term reconstruction.
There is no single definition of ‘home’ for Ukraine’s displaced population. For some, it means repairing what the war destroyed. For others, it means putting down roots somewhere new.
Both are part of the same challenge: helping people displaced by the full-scale war find somewhere they can live, recover and rebuild.
“After years of displacement and destruction, housing is about much more than four walls and a roof. It is about having a place where families can live with dignity, make plans and begin to rebuild their lives. For some people, that means repairing the home they never left or have returned to. For others, it means finding a new home elsewhere in Ukraine. What we do is help make these different paths possible at scale, while working with the Ukrainian authorities and communities to expand longer-term housing solutions. Housing is a critical part of both our humanitarian response and efforts to find practical, lasting solutions for people affected by the war. While a just and lasting peace for the Ukrainian people is urgently needed, recovery cannot wait for the war to end. It must happen now,” said Bernadette Castel-Hollingsworth, UNHCR Representative in Ukraine.