Unregistered, Uncompensated, Unbroken

Russia's war on Ukraine is also a war on Ukrainian homes. Missiles and drones have hit civilian neighbourhoods far from the front, shattering windows, tearing off roofs and cracking walls—damage meant not just to destroy buildings but to break the will of the people who live in them. Ukraine now faces its worst housing crisis in modern memory, and Roma families are among the hardest hit and the least likely to receive compensation.

We surveyed 103 Roma families in Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih, Odesa and Kharkiv whose homes were damaged by Russian attacks. Only four per cent had received any compensation. Eighty-eight per cent had never even filed a claim, because they lacked the property documents the system demands or could not afford the fees to update them.

So they stopped waiting. Families rebuilt with plywood and plastic sheeting—whatever they could find—just to have somewhere to sleep. Many of the same households have a member serving in Ukraine's armed forces, a good number of them volunteers.

Housing is the costliest part of Ukraine's reconstruction, put at €81 billion over the next decade, and current resources cover less than a tenth of what is needed. Unless claims are handled differently—accepting alternative proof of ownership, waiving fees, counting the families the system has missed—Roma who have already been shut out of formal systems risk being shut out again.

This is not a story of helplessness. By staying, repairing and protecting one another under repeated attack, Roma families are holding ground that Russia would rather see emptied. Their presence keeps communities alive. They are part of Ukraine's strength, its resistance and its future.