Immediate shelter support allows people to remain in homes after devastating air attacks
Immediate shelter support allows people to remain in homes after devastating air attacks
In Ukraine’s old port city of Odesa, 63-year-old Nataliia lives in a historic residential building, only a short distance from the port and water. The area has endured repeated Russian strikes, and the building has felt their impact more than once – but not as massive as when a drone hit the building in April 2026.
“Normally when the drones are coming, we go to the corridor and wait. If it’s coming very close, we go down to our neighbor who lives in a basement apartment. We have tea and wait until it’s over. But this time, we didn’t even have time to get down into the basement,” recalls Nataliia, as she describes the moment as a sequence of shocks—first the attack itself, then the realization of what it had done to her home. “We were allowed into our apartments at 5 AM in the morning, and then we saw how much was destroyed.”
By a miracle, nobody died in the attack, but the destruction was devastating. Nataliia and her neighbors faced the damages that continued air attacks on urban cities across Ukraine leave behind again and again: broken windows, compromised roofs, and missing doors that no longer protect from wind, rain, and cold.
Within hours, teams from UNHCRs NGO partner The Tenth of April, had arrived on site, working urgently to help Nataliia and her neighbors to install wooden boards and tarpaulins to cover broken windows and secure the roof and doors. “They worked so hard, and they helped everybody in the building. They were very swift, an hour after we were allowed back, they arrived, were distributing and helping to install.”
For families impacted by air attacks, the speed of humanitarian response matters. Covering openings early means keeping homes habitable and protected from the elements, before more sustainable repairs can be carried out. In Nataliia’s building, they have received confirmation that the city authorities will help them with new windows and repairs.
“Until then, I have my windows covered, but I cannot even imagine what would have happened if I had not had this support,” she says. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, UNHCR together with its NGO partners have provided emergency shelter materials to more than 680,000 people impacted by air attacks – both in areas close to the frontline and after massive attacks on urban centres as Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Odesa.
Most often, the emergency response is provided within a few hours, including during the night or the day after an attack has shattered people’s homes and lives. This is made possible thanks to continued strong donor support from the European Union, one of the largest donors to UNHCR’s Ukraine operation. For Nataliia and her neighbors, the support was more than wooden boards and tarpaulin, but rather the difference between losing her home and being able to remain where she has built her life. And even though the attacks brought so much trauma, Nataliia finds strength in the shared hardship with her neighbors and community.
“Unfortunately, sorrow brings us closer together – we are stronger together.”