Cornerstone laid for Estonia-Japan IDP housing project in Ukraine
The cornerstone for an 18-unit apartment building to house internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ukraine funded by Estonia and Japan was laid earlier this week.
The apartment building is a joint project between the Estonian Center for International Development (ESTDEV) and the Japan International Development Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The dwelling in Brusyliv, Zhytomyr Oblast, in the north of the country, will be Ukraine's first three-story modular apartment building with wooden frames.
ESTDEV said the building meets the European Union's energy efficiency standards and uses solar energy. A bomb shelter will also be built next to the apartment building.
Housing for IDPs is much needed in Brusyliv. The city's mayor, Volodymyr Habinets, said the city's population has grown by 40 percent since the start of the war in 2022.
There are 2,000 IDPs in Brusyliv, but the prewar population was just over 5,000.
The undersecretary for Foreign Economic Affairs and Development Cooperation at the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mariin Ratnik, attended the ceremony and stressed the shared history between the countries.
"Based on our own experience of occupation and deportation, we fully understand what it means to lose our home and stand for freedom," she said.
"These 18 apartments do not only mean 18 living spaces, but 18 families who will regain a sense of security and dignity."
Toomas Tirs, ESTDEV's representative in Ukraine, said the Brusyliv housing project is a good example of "multilateral cooperation."
"Where Estonia, in cooperation with Japan, helps to solve an acute need – finding liveable, high-quality housing for internally displaced persons who have lost their homes," he explained.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), approximately 3.7 million people are internally displaced in Ukraine.
The Zhytomyr Region, where Estonia has concentrated most of its reconstruction efforts, received approximately 126,000 IDPs in the early months of the war. Of those, approximately 56,000 remain in the region.
In February 2026, ESTDEV opened a 36-unit apartment building in the town of Ovruch, to house nearly 100 IDPs.
The Brusyliv project also involves Harmet OÜ, a leading manufacturer of wooden modules in Estonia, and NICHIHA Corporation, one of Japan's largest producers of façade materials.
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Editor: Helen Wright
