HNL meets Mr. Yevhen Plashchenko, Director General for Spatial Planning, Ministry of Communities and Territories Development
On 7 July 2026, an HNL delegation — Timo Mikkonen (CEO), Glenn Kolleeny (legal counsel) and Andrii Antonenko (construction consultant) — met with Mr. Yevhen Plashchenko, Director General of the Directorate for Spatial Planning at Ukraine's Ministry of Communities and Territories Development. This was our second meeting at the Ministry; a few months earlier we had met Deputy Minister Artem Rybchenko. The Ministry reviews, approves and publishes Ukraine's DBN national building norms — making this a direct conversation with the people who shape official policy. Mr. Plashchenko was exceptionally well-prepared and pragmatic, and the meeting was a genuine working session, with very practical operational discussion throughout.
The regulatory barrier and the investment behind it
We presented HNL's EUR 85 million investment programme and the Finnish–Swedish–Swiss working group we chair to support Ukraine's DBN fire safety reform. Around 70% of HNL Village consists of single-family homes and townhouses that can already be permitted in Ukraine today — but unlocking modern multi-storey timber apartment buildings matters too, and that requires the reform to move forward. With Ukraine in active EU accession negotiations, aligning building norms with European frameworks is part of the process. Mr. Plashchenko engaged with this fully and clarified how norm development works between the Ministry and NDIBK — technical content at NDIBK, policy review and publication at the Ministry — along with practical guidance on how our working group can best support the reform.
Opportunities in the municipalities around Kyiv
A significant part of the conversation focused on the concrete opportunities across the Kyiv region for builders who can deliver — particularly in social and affordable housing. Many municipalities have real, immediate needs, and there is clear room for partners able to offer housing that is affordable but genuinely high in quality. This is exactly where HNL's industrial timber model fits: standardised, low-energy, turn-key homes produced at scale and at a competitive cost. We also discussed the legislative and financing avenues that could open the door to participation in these projects. It is a promising direction we intend to explore further.
What comes next
We left with a sharper picture of how to operate within Ukraine's regulatory process, and we will continue on both tracks — technical with NDIBK, policy with the Ministry. We look forward to a long-term working relationship with Mr. Plashchenko and his team, and to turning these operational discussions into concrete projects on the ground.
Happy Nordic Living Oy is a Finnish industrial housing company planning to invest EUR 85 million in Ukraine, including a timber modular production facility in the Kyiv region and the first HNL Village of approximately 1,000 homes. HNL chairs a Finnish–Swedish–Swiss industry working group supporting Ukraine's DBN fire safety reform.
