What should the world hear about Ukraine's recovery at the main event of the year?
This year, on 10-11 July, the fourth Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2025) will be held in Rome, Italy. It is an international forum where governments, international organizations, and financial institutions will present their plans for Ukraine's recovery after the full-scale Russian invasion.
Ahead of the event, Haoliang Xu, UN Under Secretary-General and acting Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP, United Nations' lead agency on international development) visited Ukraine to observe the recovery process on the ground and formulate key messages for the conference.
Kyiv: Business Resilience During Wartime
The first stop on the itinerary was the opening of a Resilient Business Hub in the very centre of Kyiv, established with the support of UNDP and the Government of Japan. The space, located in a shelter, is designed to support small and medium-sized businesses, which before the full-scale war constituted up to 70% of Ukraine's GDP. Xu noted that “supporting these enterprises is not just a matter of economics, but of protecting the livelihoods of millions of people.”
The premises are equipped with a ventilation system, a diesel generator, and Starlink satellite internet. Members of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be able to use it free of charge by registering through the organization’s website. Up to 15 people can work in the premises simultaneously. The space also includes a conference hall for 100 participants, and a meeting room.
Xu emphasized that such support for businesses and investment in people promote an inclusive economic recovery in Ukraine. He noted that the poverty rate in the country has significantly risen due to the war. Before the full-scale war in 2022, the average poverty rate in the country was 20%, but now it exceeds 35%. The UN representative stressed that investment in the country remains critically low due to security risks.
Xu stated that with financing from donor countries and with UNDP support, 25,000 enterprises have received assistance in the past three years. New hubs are planned to open in Vinnytsia, Volyn, Odesa, and Kharkiv oblasts. Vitaliy Kindrativ, Deputy Economy Minister of Ukraine, supported this idea, saying, “Spaces like this business centre allow us to continue creating new projects, negotiating, cooperating with foreign partners, and building prospects for development.”
Mykolaiv: Danger Underwater
In Mykolaiv, the acting UNDP Administrator visited a State Emergency Service (SES) facility to observe the operation of previously supplied equipment for detecting explosive objects underwater. Despite deteriorating weather conditions during the visit, specialists managed to conduct a demonstration. They launched a drone into the water from the shore; the device scanned the bottom and transmitted coordinates to the specialists' monitor. Xu also presented the service with a certificate for a Ukrainian-made Mines Eye UAV-based explosive ordnance detection system. According to Vitaliy Marynin, SES Deputy Head, the new equipment has already helped reduce injuries among units.
Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine has become one of the most mined countries in the world, with the problem affecting approximately 138,500 square kilometres of land and 14,000 square kilometres of water bodies. Currently, the main focus is on clearing land to ensure civilian safety, but mines in water bodies also pose a serious threat – especially with the approach of summer.
Underwater demining is currently carried out on an ad-hoc basis when there is a specific report of a threat. For example, if an explosive ordnance falls into a body of water or if the area is used for swimming, a special team is dispatched. Anton Ivchenko, head of the underwater demining group of the underwater and humanitarian demining unit of the Special Purpose Emergency Rescue Unit, Captain of the Civil Protection Service, explained, “The survey is complicated by almost zero visibility – virtually nothing is visible underwater anywhere.” He emphasized that the Black Sea area is very large, and surveying it could take years. At the same time, according to Ivchenko, even cleared areas can become contaminated again in the event of missile and drone attacks. Therefore, no one can currently guarantee 100% safety.
Natalia Shepel, a remote sensing expert, said that work is also underway in Ukraine to develop domestic systems for underwater demining. However, she said their creation requires time, particularly due to the complexity of training artificial intelligence systems.
“There is a rule: there should be at least a thousand photos of each object class so that this class can be loaded into the neural network system and detected with relatively high accuracy,” Shepel said. “So far, we do not have such a large marked database, so work is currently underway on both its replenishment and the development of an artificial intelligence system – namely, Computer Vision – for detecting such objects.”
Mykolaiv: Education for a Struggling Country
After this, Xu visited Mykolaiv Higher Technical College No. 21. He noted that Ukraine’s labour market is experiencing serious challenges due to large-scale population displacement and many people losing their jobs. “There has been a very large displacement of people within and from the country,” Xu said. “And this has created many challenges. One of them is the disruption of the labour market. As a result, many people have lost their jobs and many enterprises have closed. And people who have moved to new places and are looking for work face the problem that their skills may not match what is needed in the market.”
Xu emphasized that retraining people according to market needs could be a solution to this problem. With UNDP support, seminars and short-term courses have been launched at the Mykolaiv College to help internally displaced persons (IDPs), veterans, and others affected by the war acquire the necessary skills for in-demand professions. Most of the college’s entrants are still 9th-11th grade students. Local entrepreneurs are also involved in personnel training: Denys Rusnak, executive director of Electropotential LLC, noted that graduates have a strong foundation, and they are only “fine-tuned” at their workplaces.
Xu noted that Ukrainians are quickly adapting to new conditions and actively using available resources. He particularly highlighted the innovative approach where potential employers provide equipment for training. The UN representative also emphasized the importance of short-term courses that allow for quickly acquiring new skills. “Currently, 4 or 5 years of university education is not the only option. It is not the only answer to all job requirements,” he stressed.
During the visitor’s conversations with students, sixteen-year-old Hanna, the only girl in the group of electricians, shared that what she liked most about her studies was the practical part: “Actually, it's not as difficult as it seems,” she said.
Odesa: Autonomous Energy for a Million People
After Mykolaiv, the acting UNDP Administrator visited an energy facility in Odesa. The city, with over a million inhabitants, is regularly subjected to enemy attacks. With the support of the governments of Sweden, Norway, and Japan, UNDP is working to strengthen the city’s energy resilience. Specifically, there are plans to install six modern cogeneration units, each with a capacity of 3.3 megawatts, at key municipal boiler houses. Collectively, these units will provide almost 20 megawatts of autonomous energy. “This means heat in apartments, kindergartens, and schools, which is very important,” emphasized Liudmyla Budenko, a 6th-grade operator and shift supervisor.
According to the latest UNDP assessment, direct damage to Ukraine's infrastructure exceeds $176 billion, with over $20 billion of that being losses in the energy sector alone. Energy recovery projects are currently being implemented by the organization in the regions most affected by hostilities. Yuliia Kyian, Director of Strategic Planning at the Ministry of Energy, stressed that building a decentralized energy system has become a key priority in current conditions. “Although we’re losing a lot of our generating capacities, we understand that we need to build new decentralized generation,” she said. “That’s why we are adopting a strategy for the development of decentralized generation and starting to look for projects.”
Xu, for his part, emphasized that recovery must happen not just quickly, but also with environmental standards in mind. “I think that during the war, there are things we can do not only for recovery but also to help the country achieve a ‘green’ transition,” he said. “There are things we can do even now.”
An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent spoke with Xu in Odesa shortly before his departure. After meeting with government representatives, local communities, businesses, and young people, the acting UNDP Administrator clearly formulated the message he would take with him from Ukraine to Rome: “The Ukrainian people are determined to recover from the conflict,” he said. “They are committed to sustainable development, and therefore they need international support. And this support must be sustained and provided on a large scale.”