By Anna Voitenko
MYKOLAIVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) – Pensioner Tetiana Beibyko tapped approvingly at the polyethylene window installed in her home in eastern Ukraine after shelling shattered the glass windows of her five-storey block.
More than 28 months since Russia’s full-scale invasion, fighting has destroyed about 10 million windows in Ukraine, according to the organisation Insulate Ukraine.
Beibyko’s home, some 50 km (31 miles) from the front line, is one of more than 4,000 whose shattered windows have been replaced with a cheap, polyethylene sheet produced by the group, one of a number of small non-profit groups trying to help.
“There’s no draught, no blast of air,” said Beibyko, 68, who lives in the village of Mykolaivka in the Donetsk region. “Before it was all shattered. There was a hole here.”
The facade of her building is a mosaic of boards, gaping holes, polyethylene and plastic flapping in the wind.
“All the windows were smashed when we were hit,” said fellow resident Iryna Ivanenko, 63. “I tried to seal it with plastic, with whatever I could find.”
The Kyiv School of Economics estimates over 222,000 private homes have been damaged since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
While full compensation for those buildings requires time and funding from institutional donors, smaller non-profits are trying to keep the areas liveable for those who remain.
Insulate Ukraine, which is registered in Ukraine, has helped by providing polyethylene windows.
“They are a bridge for a chronic situation,” said its founder, 27-year-old Harry Blakiston Houston from Northern Ireland. “We’ve seen buildings with windows shattered from the beginning of the war, they still haven’t been touched. There are still millions of windows left to do.”
The increased demand for imported glass creates months-long queues for residents near the front line, he said.
He spent six months developing a cheaper and quicker solution after first visiting Ukraine in 2022, devising a cheap
triple-layer window from PVC piping and polyethylene — materials available in local hardware stores.
The windows are not ballistic-proof but are safer than glass, said Stanislav Stupak, an Insulate Ukraine representative.
“These windows are well designed to withstand a blast wave, they practically do not get damaged, what’s more they do not cause secondary injuries such as glass shards, fragments,” he said.
(Writing by Anastasiia Malenko and Tom Balmforth, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
