Rebuilding Ukraine: The story behind the project

The ‘Rebuilding Ukraine’ project began as a volunteer initiative by Kyiv School of Economics in cooperation with government agencies with the goal to analyze and assess war damage in Ukraine.

Shortly after the liberation of Kyiv suburbs, our partners Artem Ruzak and Ruben Mikkelsen witnessed the terrible consequences of the so-called “Russian peace” firsthand in Irpin and Bucha. It further reinforced our commitment to bring positive change to those impacted by the war.

A few months after the start of the project, the support of the UNDP enabled scaling up of the cooperation to cover 500 settlements. Looking ahead, our ultimate goal is to cover all liberated territories and those affected by the Russian invasion.

We are also proud of the partnerships we have established during the time. With the support of our partners and their help with the development of Computer Vision algorithms, the process of analyzing images is now 5 times faster than it was in the beginning. This wouldn’t be possible without the high-quality image data that we now receive from three Ukrainian companies specializing in drones and UAVs. Precise drone images not only speed up the annotation process but also help us create one of the most detailed and up-to-date maps of Ukrainian settlements.

We’re grateful for the collective effort and commitment demonstrated by our team, partners, and everyone involved in the project. Together, we’re making a significant impact on assessing war damages and driving the rebuilding process in Ukraine.