No arrivals area: how Donetsk returns to peaceful life
The development of a large program for the reconstruction of Donetsk has begun in the DPR. This opportunity appeared after the front line was moved west from the city blocks. The first crane on the site of the future new building has already risen into the sky over Donetsk. The first dismantling of a multi-storey building damaged by shells has begun. They put tiles on the sidewalks. New pipelines are being laid into the ground. A special correspondent of Izvestia saw how the once frontline city was changing, and learned what more needs to be done to restore its full-fledged peaceful appearance.
Donetsk Reconstruction Program
This year, the development of a large program for the restoration of the capital of the Donetsk People's Republic began. The regional government is working on this together with its federal colleagues, and the final document will have to be signed by the president. At the same time, urban planners have begun developing a master plan for Donetsk, which will be designed for the next 20 years, Yulia Mervaezova, First Deputy Minister of Construction, Architecture and Housing of the DPR, told Izvestia.
According to the deputy minister, until recently, due to the constant threats of shelling, measures to restore Donetsk were targeted. It was impossible to implement a full-scale project, as in Mariupol.
2025 was the first year when it became possible to fully rebuild Donetsk. In particular, it is now possible to work safely in areas that until recently were on the firing line: Kievsky, Petrovsky, Kuibyshevsky and Kirovsky. At the start, the first projects in the recent "red zone" are the restoration of the destroyed school No. 51 (it came under fire more than 10 times) and the emergency kindergarten No. 314.
"The reconstruction of two buildings of the Kalinin Hospital, damaged after direct hits in 2022, is already underway in the city," said Yulia Mervaezova. — A four—storey youth center is being created with lecture halls, conference rooms, and facilities for master classes. Gulliver Park is being improved, and the bridge is being reconstructed. Construction of a residential complex has begun in the city center, on Vatutina Avenue. Construction of another one will start in 2026.
The city also took up unattended unfinished buildings that were abandoned in early 2014. There are 39 of them in the republic, they have already been registered as the property of the DPR.
— Last year we completed the first such facility in Starobeshevo, a five—storey building. This year we are completing the construction of a nine-storey building in Donetsk. Two more high-rise buildings are planned for next year. The demand for housing in the city is very high," said Yulia Mervaezova.
An important advantage for the new settlers of Donbass is a preferential mortgage at 2%. This program will be in effect until 2030. 26 regional chiefs are also helping to restore different regions of the republic.
For example, Moscow is helping Donetsk. The patronage program is designed until 2030. During this time, the capital of the republic (and other cities under reconstruction) must overcome the consequences of wartime, as well as the disorder that was characteristic before 2014, when the repair of schools, hospitals, roads, housing and communal services infrastructure was funded on a residual basis.
At a recent meeting between Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, who oversees the reconstruction of Donetsk, the president stressed the importance of "improving the urban environment in the republican capital."
A new modern neighborhood
"151 houses in Donetsk alone in four districts of the red zone were seriously damaged," Mayor Alexei Kulemzin told Izvestia. — Windows were broken and roofs were damaged in almost 2 thousand residential buildings. 23 thousand window blocks are waiting for replacement.
In the spring, the dismantling of the entire entrance of a nine-story building on Pinter Street in the Tekstilshchik microdistrict began. In 2022, the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched a barbaric attack on the building. The upper floors were demolished, a fire broke out, and people died under the slabs. The remaining residents were forced to relocate to the maneuver fund.
Dismantling of the entrance on Pinter Street
In the same area, on Petrovsky Street, the city took on another similar object — in 2023, a shell hit a nine-story building (there were wounded). In the coming months, builders will dismantle the roof and the blocked floors.
The house damaged after the shelling on Petrovsky Street — the destruction will be eliminated in the next 2 months.
The new building on Vatutin Avenue is being built by a company from Tyumen, and this is really a breakthrough for a city where nothing has been built for 11 years. As Vladimir Sergeev, a representative of the company, told Izvestia, a whole modern neighborhood of 10 skyscrapers, a polyclinic and a kindergarten for 200 places will appear in the heart of Donetsk.
A crane above a construction site on Vatutin Avenue
Currently, the first house is being built — 23 floors, 105 apartments. Commissioning is scheduled for autumn 2026. Among the highlights of the project are floor—to—ceiling stained glass windows, the minimum area of a studio apartment is 55 square meters, private parking for 100 cars, and a boulevard in the courtyard. The remaining nine high-rise buildings (from nine to 16 floors) are expected to be completed by 2029.
Access to the once-"red zone"
The repair of roads remains an urgent issue in Donetsk. They are being put in order by the city's DRSU (Muscovites also took over some of the work). The management is responsible for laying new asphalt, patching, marking, traffic lights, bus shelters, and bridge maintenance. An important task was also to level the roadbed after the shelling: for this, the utilities had to go to the site, wait for the sappers to check the crater, then fill it with slag and asphalt chips or lay tiles, often to the sound of new cannonades. It is noteworthy that for all the years the company has not stopped its work for a single day.
Road builders gained access to the recent "red zone"
"In April, we entered territories where we had not been able to enter normally for many years," Artyom Ostapenko, deputy head of the DRSU, told Izvestia. — So, 4 km of solid pavement has already been laid in Petrovsky district, near Trudovskiye and Alexandrovka. Before that, we went there only to make an emergency filling. Recently, new asphalt was laid on Panfilov Street in the Kuibyshev district. And also in the Azotny microdistrict, which the Ukrainian army constantly ironed with shells. Next up are other areas that are no longer inaccessible — there is no living space on them. In total, 350 thousand square meters of new pavement are planned to be laid in Donetsk in 2025.
The long-awaited new coating
Four asphalt plants, which were launched back in the 1980s, continue to operate in the city. At one time, their capacity was 800 tons of mixture per shift, today, due to the deterioration of capacities, it is about 600. I would like more, says Artem Ostapenko. However, the main problem still remains an acute shortage of personnel, including those caused by mobilization: there are not enough machine operators, asphalt mixers, road workers in DRSU, and women are forced to perform male labor.
Highway and water utility
The resumption of railway service was a landmark event, before that, train horns had not been heard here for 11 years. For more than a month, Donetsk railway Station has been accepting passenger flights to Yasinovataya, Debaltseve and Prigorizhnaya Uspenka. Future plans include direct connections to major Russian cities.
Donetsk Railway Station received its first train on May 9
The key and so far unsolvable problem in the DPR, alas, remains the lack of water. After the construction of a water pipeline from the neighboring Rostov region, the issue was partially resolved: technical water enters apartments and institutions in Donetsk for 2-4 hours several times a week. But a full-fledged exit from the water blockade will be possible only with the launch of the now–empty 132-kilometer Seversky Donets-Donbass canal, which has supplied the entire steppe region with water since the 1950s. It originates in Slavyansk, which is still under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Everyone in the city hopes it won't be for long.
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