Cornerstone laid today in Ukraine for joint Estonia-Japan IDP housing project

The apartment building is a joint project between the Estonian Centre for International Development (ESTDEV) and the Japan International Development Cooperation Agency (JICA). The 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. 

The undersecretary for Foreign Economic Affairs and Development Cooperation at the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mariin Ratnik, attended today’s ceremony and emphasised that Estonians’ solidarity with Ukraine is not accidental. “Based on our own experience of occupation and deportation, we fully understand what it means to lose our home and stand for freedom. There is a Ukrainian proverb: Дім там, де серце. Home is where the heart is. These 18 apartments do not only mean 18 living spaces, but 18 families who will regain a sense of security and dignity,” Ratnik said in her opening remarks. 

“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,” said Toomas Tirs, ESTDEV’s representative in Ukraine. 

The building meets the European Union's energy efficiency standards, follows the Passive House principles, and uses solar energy. A bomb shelter will also be built next to the apartment building, ensuring residents have a safe place to take cover when necessary. 

Safe, stable housing for IDPs is of long-term importance to Ukraine's reconstruction. Estonia’s increasingly popular wooden modular construction technology has the potential to meet Ukraine’s strategic goals, as it allows for the rapid construction of high-quality, energy-efficient living spaces. At the same time, sharing this technology can support the Ukrainian construction sector, as they develop sustainable building solutions. 

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), approximately 3.7 million people are internally displaced in Ukraine. The Zhytomyr Region, where Brusyliv is located and 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. 

Of these, 2,000 IDPs currently live in Brusyliv. According to Brusyliv’s mayor, Volodymyr Habinets, just over 5,000 people lived in Brusyliv before the war, meaning the city's population has grown by 40% since the beginning of the war. 

However, Brusyliv has a long history of involving IDPs in the town’s development. Habinets said that the town received new residents after the 1986 Chornobyl disaster, and again in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea. 

In February 2026, ESTDEV opened a 36-unit apartment building in the town of Ovruch, to house nearly 100 IDPs.