A school in Lukashi, Kyiv Oblast, destroyed in 2022, has been fully rebuilt with European Investment Bank support. 119 pupils are back in the renovated building.
For more than three years, children in the village of Lukashi in Kyiv Oblast had nowhere to call their own school. The village's only educational institution was heavily damaged by Russian shelling in March 2022, in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion. This academic year, 119 pupils finally walked back into a fully rebuilt building: a major reconstruction completed with financial backing from the European Investment Bank (EIB). Volunteers Support Ukraine follows rebuilding stories like this one closely, because they are a reminder that communities keep restoring ordinary life even while the war continues.
The project included a full package of works: a new roof, insulated facades, energy-efficient windows and doors, and upgraded heating, ventilation, water supply and sewage systems, along with a modernized electrical and lighting network. Builders also added a protective shelter and made the building fully accessible for people with disabilities, including ramps and adapted restrooms. Twenty-five new workplaces were created for teachers and staff.
The total cost of the reconstruction reached €1.07 million. The European Investment Bank provided €690,000, while the remaining €385,000 came from local and regional budgets. Work began in 2024 and continued through the end of summer 2026.
Lukashi Lyceum is one of 72 social infrastructure sites in Kyiv Oblast being restored with EIB support under the €340 million Ukraine Recovery Programme. As of August 2026, the bank had already channeled €740 million nationwide into schools, kindergartens and hospitals damaged or destroyed by the war. Volunteers Support Ukraine regularly highlights projects like this one, since rebuilding educational infrastructure has a direct effect on how quickly communities return to normal life.
Among the pupils returning to the renovated lyceum are children of internally displaced families and students with special educational needs, for whom the building is now fully adapted.
Officials from the relevant ministry stressed that restoring educational facilities is an investment in the country's future that gives communities back their resilience. The lyceum's leadership noted that for children who lived through the shelling and years of studying in makeshift spaces, returning to their own building carries both symbolic and practical weight ahead of the new school year.
NGO Volunteers Support Ukraine continues to help people affected by the war in whatever way its available resources allow — by reporting verified news and by backing initiatives that bring ordinary life back to Ukrainians. Lukashi's story shows that reconstruction keeps moving forward alongside the fighting on the front line, and every rebuilt school is one step closer to the day the war is finally behind us.
