LocationsFeeling at home and finding your place
Urban October: Rivne
October 19, 2026
Around 20,000 people who lost their homes to the war now live in Rivne which has brought a new set of challenges.
Photo: UNDP Ukraine
Urban October is a month-long campaign focused on sustainable urbanization and resilient cities. As our societies become increasingly urbanized, and the effects of climate change intensify, UNDP works around the world to make cities more livable for all their residents.
It has been 25 years since I moved from my native Lutsk to Rivne. You might say it was matters of the heart that brought me to this city. I was only 19 at the time, my fiancé was from Rivne, and our marriage marked the beginning of my Rivne story. After the move, I felt genuinely astonished—the new city turned out to be remarkably green and cosy, full of parks, squares and quiet streets. During my years of motherhood, I always had somewhere to walk with a pram: a quiet green oasis to retreat to, a place to find stillness and harmony with nature. Taras Shevchenko Park, one of the biggest names in classic Ukrainian literature, right in the heart of the city, has a particular charm—vast and strikingly beautiful. Locals also love Lake Basiv Kut and Molodi Park (the Park of Youth), affectionately known as "Lebedynka" (the Swan Park). Rivne, then as now, remains a comfortable place to live, a city of mutual respect and tolerance—I cannot recall a single conflict arising from ethnic or racial difference.
With every passing year, I discover Rivne anew, finding special places that become my favourites. One such spot is the café Tvorcha Oselia. It has a distinctive atmosphere. The walls are hung with paintings of city scenes, and visitors can buy postcards and souvenirs bearing Rivne's own symbols. You can even, quite literally, 'taste Rivne'—the pastry chefs there bake cakes shaped like our drama theatre, our organ hall and Lebedýnka lake.
And yet, for me, the city is above all its people. The people of Rivne are open, tolerant, creative, true hosts—individualists, perhaps, but in times of crisis they come together swiftly and stand shoulder to shoulder. This sense of unity was especially evident at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when the city became a temporary refuge for hundreds of thousands of displaced people making their way further west. Today, around 20,000 people who lost their homes to the war live here. Alongside this has come a new set of difficult challenges--a significant strain on infrastructure, the need for additional shelters and hospital beds, and a demand for an autonomous power supply. The shortage of skilled workers has also become acutely felt. All this calls for swift decisions and fresh approaches from both the community and the authorities to preserve comfort and safety for every resident. In my work, I see how UNDP's projects are helping the city overcome these difficulties and, against the odds, continue to create new opportunities.
Sweden and UNDP also supported the "Rivne Smart Challenge", run by the Rivne business school and aimed at helping local businesses tackle the shortage of skilled workers.
Photo: UNDP Ukraine
One of the most significant of these is the creation of a municipal business co-working space. In 2025, the city received a grant from the Government of Germany and UNDP in Ukraine to establish it, and Rivne now has a modern space for entrepreneurs. It hosts business events, houses showrooms where local producers can present their goods and includes a space dedicated to the creative industries. A particular feature is the unique Museum of the Embroidered Book, the work of the talented Rivne artist Olena Medvedieva. What is truly inspiring is that this space is far more than attractive walls or a stylish renovation—the designers and city team built it with accessibility at its core, so everyone can use it fully and freely. Today the co-working space is constantly full of people and opens its doors every day to new ideas and partnerships.
This year, Sweden and UNDP also supported another important initiative, the "Rivne Smart Challenge", run by the Rivne business school "Smart People", aimed at helping local businesses tackle the shortage of skilled workers. Students from Rivne's universities took part in career workshops, visited local enterprises, worked through real business cases set by local companies and were given the chance to be employed by them. It is a fine example of how education and business can work together to develop the local economy.
These initiatives show that, even amid today's difficult realities, Rivne is striving to move forward. Yet challenges remain that call for further attention. I believe the greatest challenge facing our city today is access to urban space. Its infrastructure was built without the needs of people with limited mobility in mind, yet the war has, sadly, meant their numbers are steadily growing. It is encouraging that a new culture of accessibility is already taking shape in the city. As part of the national pilot project "Movement Without Barriers", an inclusive "Barrier-Free Route" spanning 7.9 kilometres is being created. The first stretches of the route have already linked key administrative and social locations in the city centre, and more than 60 public facilities are gradually being mapped onto special digital and electronic city maps.
And yet, when I think of Rivne's future, I see it not only in improved amenities and infrastructure, but above all in its children and young people. Walking through the city centre, I find myself longing to see more parents out with babies in prams, to see crowds of noisy children on the playgrounds, to hear laughter, to feel the energy of a younger generation, to marvel once again at queues of school leavers outside the universities, the way it used to be when the admissions season felt like a real celebration.
I believe that a happy city is one filled with the joyful voices of adults and the laughter of children. I believe that, one day, all our Ukrainian cities will be like that again!