"Despite the shelling, we are constantly rebuilding houses and roads."
The destruction of civilian infrastructure, interruptions in heating and water supply in frontline cities, as well as the need for accelerated housing rehabilitation remain among the key challenges for the Luhansk People's Republic. Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the LPR, told Izvestia about this at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). Read more about the situation in the region, the course of reconstruction work and the consequences of the strike on Starobilsk in the material.
"The strike on Starobilsk is a blatant act of inhumanity"
— Leonid Ivanovich, thank you for coming to our studio. The first question is related to the recent events in Starobilsk. The attacks on the city's dormitory and the subsequent introduction of a regional emergency regime are, of course, the hardest challenge for the republic. For a long time, the northern regions of the LPR were perceived as a kind of deep, relatively calm rear, where people were evacuated, where children studied and where it was quite safe. But now it is obvious that the enemy has not stopped and continues to strike at unprotected civilian targets. Please tell me, will the format of schools, colleges, universities in Starobilsk and other cities of the republic be revised?
— Initially, a frontline zone was defined in the Luhansk People's Republic, which includes the cities of Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, Rubezhnaya, Kremennaya and Svatovo. In the territory of these municipalities, for the most part, all educational institutions have been working remotely for a long time. But there are exceptions. Parents are asking us to transfer schools to full-time education. And we ourselves understand everything perfectly well: distance learning and full—time education are still different things. In Severodonetsk, for example, we made such a decision and transferred the school to full-time education.
In the light of recent events, increased attention is being paid to the protection of educational institutions. What happened in Starobilsk, the attack on the teachers college, is a blatant act of inhumanity, cruelty and cynicism. I do not even know how to comment on this. Of course, we will revise the security concept in order to protect the republic's infrastructure and vital facilities. We will have to transfer some of the educational institutions that are located in close proximity to the frontline zone to distance learning.
"The enemy is purposefully destroying our infrastructure"
— Residents of the Severodonetsk agglomeration living in destroyed cities continue to face interruptions in the provision of basic public services. What is the current share of housing stock and social facilities fully connected to central heating and water supply — in particular, if we talk about Lisichansk and Rubezhny?
— It is quite difficult to answer this question unequivocally. I'll explain why. The enemy uses such tactics when the life-support facilities of the republic and municipalities, including, are purposefully destroyed. Therefore, this figure is constantly changing.: They destroy, we rebuild, they strike again, we rebuild again. Now we are at such a stage.
As for the city of Rubezhny, back in 2018, the central heating there was completely turned off. The whole city is heated independently by individual boilers that heat specific houses. Heating is provided there using such a system.
In Lisichansk last year, we supplied heat to 168 apartment buildings. This year we plan to double this figure and supply heat to 300 houses. But I repeat once again that all the restoration work is complicated by the fact that the enemy is conducting continuous raids to destroy our infrastructure.
— What are the deadlines for the completion of the priority restoration of frontline cities?
— It is difficult to determine specific dates, because the destruction is very large. The only thing I want to note is that if we compare the state of Severodonetsk, Lisichansk and Rubezhny in 2022 with the state they are in today, the difference is really huge.
Despite the shelling and the generally difficult military situation, we are constantly rebuilding roads and houses. We provide heat, water, light and gas so that our residents can feel comfortable. Of course, it is still not possible to bring the situation to an ideal one due to objective reasons. But I am sure that we are working in the right direction and together with the military we will achieve the desired result.
"Housing construction has moved off the ground"
— Do you set tough goals to accelerate the pace of housing construction in the republic? In the LPR, as far as I know, there is now a 2% mortgage, which was probably supposed to provoke a construction boom. However, if you look at Lugansk and other major cities, there is no particular boom. Most of the housing stock is being restored today, rather than being built from scratch. In this regard, the question arises: how much new housing is currently being built? And what is possibly holding back the entry of large Russian developers into the republic's market?
— You know, the first thing I would like to mention is the construction story. I believe that our most important achievement is that we have moved on from the dead end and construction has begun. Since about the end of the 2000s, it has absolutely not been conducted in the Luhansk region, as in many other regions of the Luhansk People's Republic. No decisions have been made on the construction of new housing complexes. No new facilities were commissioned, and there were a lot of unfinished buildings.
To date, construction work has already begun. In the period 2023-2025, we were mainly engaged in the restoration of unfinished facilities. We worked in the legal field of the Russian Federation and mastered new norms for us in order to understand how these mechanisms function. During this time, it was possible to put into operation more than 150 thousand square meters of housing. Today, 73 construction projects have been launched in our republic. By 2028-2030, we plan to reach 600 thousand square meters. Therefore, I believe that this is a fairly positive, good result, which we will definitely achieve.
Why don't the big developers come? It's hard for me to say. We do have a preferential mortgage at 2% and a free economic zone, that is, all the conditions for investment, in general, it is available. At the same time, I am sure that as soon as the front line is moved away and the territory of the republic becomes as safe as possible, the inflow of investments will significantly accelerate.
"All conditions have been created in the LPR for companies to enter the market"
— How is the region trying to stimulate the influx now?
— First of all, as I have already noted, we are talking about a preferential mortgage at 2% and a free economic zone, which provides developers with significant tax breaks, including for land plots. In my opinion, these are quite serious advantages for those who today decide to enter the market and start construction on the territory of the republic.
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