Russians promise to start rebuilding Vuhledar in 2028

Russians plan to start rebuilding Vuhledar in 2028, Konstiantyn Zinchenko, the head of the occupation administration in Volnovakha, to which Vuhledar is subordinated, wrote on the Russian social network VK in late December.

According to Zinchenko, the reconstruction of the destroyed village of Stepne between Volnovakha and Vuhledar is also promised to begin in 2028. He wrote that the Russian “patron region” Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District will carry out the reconstruction. In Stepne, “first of all, the reconstruction” of a kindergarten and a school is planned.

Vuhledar was a young town that was founded in 1964 and developed as a mining settlement around two coal mines. Since 2022, the town has been at the epicentre of hostilities. When Russian troops occupied the town in 2024, it, like neighbouring Mariinka, was destroyed. Since then, heavy fighting has been going on for neighbouring Kurakhove.

Russian and Russian-appointed officials in the occupied territories have repeatedly made public promises to rebuild Ukrainian towns destroyed and occupied by the Russian army but have usually refrained from specifying dates and timeframes.

Russians are repairing or building new houses to replace those destroyed in Mariupol, but the new houses are often assigned new addresses so that the owners of the destroyed housing cannot claim new apartments in their place. Residents have also repeatedly complained about the quality of repairs.

At the end of December, the head of the occupation administration in Novoazovsk, Vasyl Ovcharov, announced that the electricity supply had been restored to Shyrokyne near Mariupol, which was also occupied by Russian troops in early 2022.

According to occupation officials, repair crews from the “patron region” of outer Moscow began restoring the village, which had been a war zone since 2014 and then a demilitarised zone between the positions of the Ukrainian and de facto Russian armies, in autumn 2024. According to Ovcharov, some residents have returned to Shyrokyne, but they are restoring their homes on their own, while the Russian “patron” plans to continue restoring the power grid.

Reconstruction has also allegedly begun in Avdiivka, which Russian troops occupied in early 2024. In March 2024, Russian deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin stated that “Avdiivka has suffered, but given the scale, that there are not many residents there, as soon as we move the contact line, we will quickly start to restore it and restore it within a year”.

In November 2024, Khusnillin, who is responsible for coordinating the reconstruction of settlements in the occupied parts of Ukraine, said that one neighbourhood in Avdiivka would be restored first, and then “a plan for further work will be drawn up”.

According to a video posted on social media by the head of the Donetsk “republic” Denis Pushilin, as of the beginning of January 2025, only 40 apartments in one apartment block in Avdiivka had been repaired.