On February 24, 2024, Elvira Lesyshyn, a resident of Zakarpattia, woke up around four in the morning to the outbreak of a full-scale war provoked by Russia. Despite being just five kilometers from the EU border, she did not hesitate to stay instead of fleeing and went to work that morning, understanding that her presence there was crucial.

In the first days and months of the war, the Zakarpattia Oblast Military Administration worked around the clock. In the Department of Economic and Regional Development, where Elvira worked, the OMA established a humanitarian headquarters, so there were numerous tasks, including the placement of people fleeing to the western part of the country to escape the shelling.

"We received calls from all over Ukraine asking us to take people in. We provided the coordinates of communities, where kindergartens, dormitories, and schools were urgently set up to accommodate them. Our phone didn’t stop ringing! I remember it vividly, and it gives me chills," recalls Elvira Lesyshyn, head of the Regional Development Department of the Zakarpattia Oblast Military Administration.

Elvira Lesyshyn (third in the middle wit the team)

Zakarpattia is one of the smallest regions in Ukraine, but it had to take in perhaps the largest number of people overwhelmed by despair and fear. The region became a refuge for around 300,000 displaced persons, more than a third of Zakarpattia's own population.

Neither the utility services, the roads, nor the social services were prepared for such a load. However, the region managed to cope, partly thanks to international partners. Nelya Petrus, acting head of the Polyana Village Council, describes one of many examples:

"Our community took in 20,000 displaced persons, several thousand more than our residents! The USAID HOVERLA Activity helped us immensely in processing the IDPs by providing laptops. We added six workstations to our Administrative Service Center (ASC), allowing the IDPs to register on time, get certificates, and receive state assistance.”

Tetiana Potapova, a teacher who fled from occupation in Nova Kakhovka in Kherson Oblast and now lives in the Dovzhanska community, was able to continue teaching her students online despite power outages due to Russian attacks on infrastructure.

“This affected both everyday comfort and my professional duties. But after the community installed a powerful generator provided by HOVERLA, I could work in any situation.”

The region now urgently needs alternative energy sources as it braces for a harsh winter and adjusts to new economic conditions. In addition to accommodating many people seeking refuge, Zakarpattia has also welcomed the second-highest number of relocated businesses — 284 enterprises — following Lviv Oblast.

“Accepting relocated businesses was also task number one. In the first months, we looked for old factories, hangars, and land plots to house new enterprises. While we managed to overcome these challenges, other issues have arisen. For example, machine-building and metallurgical enterprises have relocated here. Zakarpattia is considered an ecologically clean area, so these industries were not common here. But the biggest challenge was the lack of qualified personnel that were appropriately trained, whether in vocational schools or universities,” recalls Elvira Lesyshyn.

Understanding the reality that people are the oblast’s most valuable asset and capital, Zakarpattia’s task is to maintain the country’s economy. In mid-2023, officials began working on an updated regional development strategy with communities and the civil sector, with the USAID HOVERLA Activity providing technical support.

The strategy focuses on the education and retraining of the adult population, the employment of IDPs, training and grant support for businesses, creating IT hubs for industrial parks, attracting investments, developing exports, business environments in communities, craft production and quality services, particularly in remote mountain communities. The plan emphasizes economic development, highlighting green tourism, especially since vacations on the Black Sea are currently dangerous, etc.

"A company from Kramatorsk, a city in Donetsk Oblast near the front line, has relocated to Zakarpattia. This company, which manufactures wind turbines, has already established an industrial park in the Perechyn community. Zakarpattia Oblast now has six registered industrial parks," says Elvira.

Today, Zakarpattia is considered the safest region in Ukraine, where Russian missiles almost never reach. Serving as a refuge for hundreds of thousands of people, Zakarpattia is steadily progressing towards a European future.