Former coal town Novovolynsk forges new blueprint for real-time recovery

By blending strategic UNDP partnerships with local entrepreneurship, a Volyn Oblast community is proving that the work of rebuilding Ukraine doesn’t have to wait for a ceasefire.

April 14, 2026

In the formerly coal-mining city of Novovolynsk, just a few dozen miles from the Polish border, the frequent wail of air raid sirens serves as a persistent reminder of a nation at war. But the city is refusing to wait for a ceasefire to begin its rebirth. Through a strategic “Recovery and Development Plan,” the community is blending international aid with local ambition to prove that recovery is not a distant, post-war concept – it is a current process.

This transformation is anchored by a partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which is currently supporting five critical infrastructure projects across the Volyn Oblast community. By the end of 2026, the city plans to complete the thermal modernisation of its kindergarten and social services centre, alongside extensive renovations to a local lyceum. Beyond brick and mortar, the initiative has already birthed a Sustainable Business Hub, and also enabled the community to implement six additional project initiatives.

The Novovolynsk community is post-coal. After the closure of most mines, the city – which was built in the 1950s as a mining town – had to make an important decision about its future direction. Its location approximately 20 kilometres from the Polish border made Novovolynsk attractive to enterprises and businesses, but simultaneously created a new challenge: how to prevent emigration and improve residents' well-being. The full-scale war has further intensified this issue.

Adapting to wartime

Novovolynsk’s mayor, Borys Karpus, says that after the start of the full-scale invasion, several strategic initiatives were suspended and reconsidered. Priorities shifted towards ensuring the community’s basic resilience: strengthening energy security, maintaining the uninterrupted operation of critical infrastructure, providing social protection for residents – including more than 4,000 internally displaced people – and supporting local businesses facing wartime risks.

The war also affected the financial capacity of the Novovolynsk community: internal revenues decreased, while expenditures on social support and security measures rose. Consequently, some investment projects had to be postponed.

But at the same time, the war acted as a catalyst for rethinking development strategies: the community intensified international cooperation and focused on projects related to energy independence, economic diversification, and the formation of a new growth model based on the principles of resilience, security, and European integration.

“As part of our cooperation with UNDP and with funding from the Government of Japan, we developed a Recovery and Development Plan alongside the community, through which five projects are already at the implementation stage,” the mayor says. “The plan helped determine clear priorities in light of our limited resources.”

Support for entrepreneurs

The Recovery and Development Plan became the regulatory basis for participation in grant programmes, allowing the community to implement 11 project initiatives with a total value of nearly UAH 113.5 million starting in 2024. One of these is the creation of the Sustainable Business Hub.

The hub’s head, Ivanna Tsytsiuk, says that in almost a year of operation, the hub has provided more than 80 consultations and helped entrepreneurs prepare grant applications to develop their businesses; nine out of ten applicants received funding. Among them is Oksana Hrynyshyn, who opened a new café in the city.

“In our city, there was only fast food, and I wanted there to be a beautiful place where people could sit with good coffee and pastries and talk,” Hrynyshyn says. “Yes, the war is ongoing, but how long should we wait? My son is now seven years old, and it was he who encouraged me to open my own business. I want my child to grow up in a pleasant city where there is choice and opportunity.”

International support was key: Hrynyshyn says that without the grant, she would not have dared to open her cafe.

Olena Kostiuk also received grant support with the help of the hub. Having worked as a massage therapist for six years, she decided more than a year ago to scale up her business and grow professionally, noticing that the demand for massage services exceeded what she could offer alone.

“If I hadn’t received help with the grant, I would have had to take out loans,” Kostiuk says, standing in the middle of her massage salon. “And without the hub’s consultations and workshops, I would probably have been searching artificial intelligence for answers on how to be an entrepreneur.”

Both Hrynyshyn and Kostiuk have created new jobs and say their small businesses are making Novovolynsk a more comfortable place to live.

That’s just the result Karpus and Tsytsiuk aim to achieve.

“Our strategic mission is to support the development of micro and small businesses, to register new businesses that will operate here, pay taxes, hire employees, and invest their resources in the development of our community,” Tsytsiuk says.

A place where people want to live

Karpus explains that the community, in carrying out its plan for recovery and development, is improving conditions for self-employment and small businesses in order to strengthen the local economy and increase the competitiveness of both residents and enterprises.

“If we want to be competitive as a small community, we must act,” Karpus says. “The threat is simple and enormous: people leaving. This includes seasonal migration and young people who go away to study and never return. My task is to do everything possible so that people want to live in the community now.”

The city’s Recovery and Development Plan, developed with UNDP and funded by the Government of Japan, has also facilitated the implementation of projects focused on the social sector and infrastructure modernisation. Training provided by UNDP also contributed to these efforts.

Vitalii Denysiuk, deputy director of the local hospital, took part in UNDP project management training.

“It was a very interesting experience,” Denysiuk says. “Our team had two projects: the first was installing solar panels on our building, and the second was our rehabilitation centre – its renovation, expansion, and training for specialists.”

“Unfortunately, we did not win at that time, but we learned how to write grant applications properly. Soon afterwards, we won a grant from the World Bank and installed solar panels on three buildings, while the rehabilitation department was created through joint efforts with philanthropists.”

He adds that the hospital, which has 550 beds, continues to improve conditions for patients.

Karpus says cooperation with UNDP provided the community not only with financial resources, but also with access to modern approaches to strategic planning, energy efficiency, infrastructure recovery, and the development of the business environment.

“An important result has been the improvement of specialists’ competencies, the introduction of project management in accordance with international standards, and the formation of a systematic portfolio of public investments,” the mayor says.

Novovolynsk is only one of several examples of how transparent planning and international partnership can create new standards of living – even in wartime.

Since 2023, UNDP, with financial support from the Government of Japan, has been providing comprehensive assistance to Ukrainian communities. During the first stage, 10 pilot territorial communities participated in the project; in 2024, the initiative expanded to include another 20 communities from across Ukraine.

Through this support, the 10 pilot communities have already developed strategic planning documents, anti-corruption programmes, and individual communication strategies. They have also undergone project management training and strengthened their capacity in strategic communications, media literacy, and countering disinformation.

Several communities’ recovery and development projects have been supported by UNDP, with financial assistance from Japan, through the procurement of necessary equipment. Through this support, communities like Novovolynsk have not only strengthened their institutional capacity, but have also successfully attracted funding to implement practical initiatives.

Photo credit: Stanislav Pantelei / UNDP in Ukraine