19 May 2025

"Your Overconfidence is Your Weakness!"

Borodianka and the Fine Balance of Trust and Control

Note of caution: This piece may contain occasional traces of pathos and polemics. Handle with perspective.

Borodianka, a small town northwest of Kyiv, shows what resilience means: rebuilding fast, decentralized—in both tech and decision-making—and with active trust. Ukraine reveals how democracy holds when it’s built on responsibility from below, not control from above—and reminds us what happens when confidence turns rigid.

For investors, it reveals where innovation and decentralization become real potential—and invites us to rethink the daily balance between opportunity and risk.

During my visit in spring 2025, a drone alert app warned me in calm, clear words: “Don’t be careless. Your overconfidence is your weakness.” The phrase stayed with me—not just as a safety instruction, but as a metaphor for the fragile balance required in times of uncertainty.

Key takeaways:

• Resilience is bottom-up.
  In Borodianka, recovery began with self-organized action—long before official programs arrived.

• Rebuilding is digital and decentralized.
  Ukraine is rebuilding with modular systems, local autonomy, and smart infrastructure by default.

• Trust enables speed.
  Digital tools like the Diia ecosystem reflect a broader trust-based logic that supports fast, adaptive governance.

• Overconfidence is a structural risk.
  Balance, not rigidity, is what keeps systems responsive under pressure.

• Ukraine is a live testbed.
  For investors, this is not just recovery—it’s scalable innovation in housing, energy, industry, health, defense, agriculture—to name just a few.

A Small Town, A National Wound

Borodianka is a typical Ukrainian small town located about 50 kilometers northwest of Kyiv. A narrow river runs through it, and its center features a public park, a large children’s playground—and a monument to national poet Taras Shevchenko. After the Russian occupation in early 2022, the statue bore multiple bullet holes in the head—deliberately fired at a cultural symbol.

The statue has since been repaired, but the bullet holes in Shevchenko’s head remain—quietly marking the memory of occupation. Next to the statue, a small open-air museum now displays fragments of street art from the early days and months of the war.

Among them is a mural by British artist Banksy, painted in November 2022. It shows a female gymnast balancing in a handstand on the rubble of a bombed-out building. The image has become a local icon—of defiance, balance, grace, and strength amid collapse (at least for me—but of course open to interpretation).

The town was under Russian military control from late February until early April 2022. During that time, Borodianka suffered extensive and targeted destruction, particularly along the main road where entire residential buildings were reduced to rubble.

Taras Shevchenko statue in Borodianka, spring 2022 © ua.ventures

First Visit: Spring 2022

I visited Borodianka for the first time in spring 2022, several weeks after the liberation. The city center and the buildings along the main road had been almost completely destroyed. Furniture inside the apartments was fully exposed. Pages of books scattered across the rubble fluttered in the wind.

And yet, beside the ruins, children were playing on the swings in the city park. Residents had already begun repairing their homes with whatever resources they had—a bottom-up, grassroots response that is characteristic of Ukrainian society and has played a decisive role in the country’s resilience.

Borodianka, spring 2022 © ua.ventures

Return in 2025: The War Continues, Recovery Advances

In spring 2025—three years later—I returned to Borodianka. The war is still ongoing, and the threat remains. The statue has since been repaired, but the bullet holes in Shevchenko’s head remain—quietly marking the memory of occupation.

Air raid sirens still wail, and warning apps continue to buzz on your phone. But the signs of recovery are visible. Children are once again playing in the park. People are gathering on the sidewalks, flowers in hand, attending the opening of new local shops. The ruins that once lined the main street have almost entirely disappeared—replaced by modern new buildings.

This, too, is resilience: not just endurance, but adaptation. The agility with which Ukrainians rebuild—even under conditions of continued uncertainty—remains one of the defining features of this phase of war and recovery.

Banksy, Gymnast. Borodianka, spring 2025 © ua.ventures

In the town center, a small open-air exhibition now displays fragments of street art salvaged from destroyed buildings. Among them is Banksy’s gymnast—now sealed behind thick glass and preserved for the future. The exhibit reflects how art and reconstruction have become intertwined in Borodianka’s recovery—as in many other parts of Ukraine.

Building Back: Fast, Modular, and Efficient

Borodianka today stands as both a visible consequence of targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure and a practical test site for Ukraine’s reconstruction strategy. The town illustrates three urgent needs (besides an effective military defense): scalable, sustainable construction methods; energy and water resilience; and digital integration across infrastructure and services.

Following the destruction of residential buildings, early reconstruction efforts prioritized speed without compromising safety or function. Remarkably, many damaged residential blocks were repaired extremely quickly by the apartment owners themselves—far faster than any masterplan could have delivered. Overarching plans are most useful for setting the right incentives, not for managing implementation in every detail—especially when the goal is to avoid bottlenecks, monopolies, and the risk of corruption.

Under the UNITED24 programme, a multi-storey apartment building at 306 Tsentralna Street was rebuilt in less than a year. It includes energy-efficient systems, modern insulation, and pre-fabricated components to reduce construction time and logistics complexity. The use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and off-site fabrication methods is increasing, driven by the need to build faster and smarter—especially in post-conflict environments.

Smart Services, Resilient Utilities

Administrative functions were restored using modular architecture. The UNDP and European Union deployed a fully functional Administrative Service Centre, allowing local services to resume quickly while introducing low-energy heating, backup power and integrated digital service access. These structures are designed for long-term operation, with lower operating costs and higher tolerance to grid disruptions.

Borodianka is also part of a broader shift toward decentralized energy systems. As Ukraine accelerates efforts to reduce reliance on centralized grids, the town exemplifies environments where local photovoltaic (PV) systems, battery storage, and hybrid heating solutions are not only desirable but necessary. A 2024 study confirmed that Ukraine has significant untapped rooftop solar potential, especially in towns like Borodianka.

This emphasis on decentralization extends beyond energy. At the Deep Dive: Smart Water Ukraine conference in Berlin, organized by us in collaboration with Startup Incubator Berlin, Mykolaiv Water Hub and other partners in June 2024, experts highlighted the critical role of decentralized and digitally managed water systems in Ukraine’s recovery.

The event underscored that smart monitoring, predictive maintenance and decentralized treatment technologies are vital for building resilience—particularly where centralized infrastructure has been compromised or destroyed.

Borodianka, spring 2025 © ua.ventures

A Living Lab for Broader Transformation

Importantly, Ukraine’s strong digital governance and innovation ecosystem has played a catalytic role in reconstruction. Tools like the Diia platform streamline public services, while local tech startups are contributing solutions for site monitoring, drone-based damage assessment, and predictive maintenance for public infrastructure. Smart meters, energy dashboards, and digital twin models are becoming part of next-generation building and utility systems.

In Borodianka and beyond, the post-war reconstruction is not only about bricks and cables—it is about embedding intelligence into every layer of the built environment. For investors, this approach extends far beyond urban recovery. The principles tested and applied in Borodianka—resilience through decentralization, speed through modularity, and adaptability through digital integration—are equally relevant for Ukraine’s broader reconstruction economy.

Whether in manufacturing, logistics, agri-infrastructure or rural electrification, scalable and locally maintainable systems are now essential. The same logic that enables fast, off-grid, low-dependency housing can power agricultural storage, mobile processing units, or adaptive production lines.

Invest in Bravery: Tech Innovation Driving Resilience and Defense

The shift is visible not only in building technologies, but also in Ukraine’s digital and defense ecosystems. During this journey in May 2025, I had the opportunity to participate in the Invest in Bravery May 2025 event in Kyiv. The event confirmed what has become increasingly clear: Ukraine’s tech and digital economy—anchored by the Ministry of Digital Transformation, which was already highly dynamic before the war—plays a central role in enabling resilience and defense.

Germany, too, has now established a Ministry for Digital Affairs. However, digitalization in Ukraine is not only institutionally more advanced—it is also culturally embedded to a far greater extent.

What stood out most was the pace: many of the solutions are not top-down programs, but emerge from an agile, bottom-up innovation culture that rapidly responds to real-world needs. I thank the organizers of Invest in Bravery for the invitation—and for opening one more window into Ukraine’s future-facing, high-speed digital transformation.

What also struck me was that it wasn't about military ranks or titles of government officials or deputies, but rather about pragmatic action and genuine defensive strengths—technological, strategic, and tactical. Responsibility for those at the front or under threat of fire in the cities was always there.

For angel investors like us at ua.ventures, it’s inspiring to witness the pace and clarity of this ecosystem—even if our own investments may focus on other sectors within Ukraine. And there’s no shortage of opportunity.

A Word of Caution: Don't Repeat the Old Mistakes

This transformation is also cultural and institutional. Much of what has worked in Ukraine’s recovery so far is bottom-up, community-driven, and agile—born of necessity, not bureaucracy. There is a real risk that this dynamic could be stifled by overcentralized aid mechanisms, donor conditionalities, or EU-style administrative complexity. Worse, funding structures that prioritize formalism over functionality (and input over output) could reintroduce corruption or inefficiency under the banner of reconstruction.

The lesson from Borodianka is not just what to build, but how to build: through trust in local capacity, adaptability, and practical intelligence. The challenge for international partners is not to impose legacy models—but to learn from Ukraine’s own innovations and avoid repeating the very governance failures that the country is now in the process of overcoming—what I’ve come to call the Western Balkans Effect (1).

This includes acknowledging the role of Ukraine’s innovation ecosystem. Private actors such as business angels, for example, help bridge the gap between public and private capital by identifying high-potential ventures, co-investing through matching mechanisms, mentoring founders, and opening access to follow-on financing.

Trust as Democratic Infrastructure

Ukraine may be showing what democratic resilience can look like under pressure. The Ministry of Digital Transformation, launched before the full-scale invasion, wasn’t just about efficiency—it was also about fighting corruption through transparency and automation.

Fresh breeze in Kyiv, spring 2025 © ua.ventures

This new culture of trust stands in contrast to control reflexes still common in parts of Europe. In countries like Germany, excessive bureaucracy often reflects a deeper issue: a lack of trust in society’s ability to act responsibly. Ironically, this obsession with control can undermine the very legitimacy it seeks to protect.

Ukraine offers a different path. Not a perfect model, but a field experiment in fast, digital, locally grounded governance. The challenge for Europe is to learn—from both Ukraine’s innovations and its balanced, trust-based resilience.

Your Overconfidence is your Weakness

Later on that same journey in spring 2025, I was driving in my car along a wide open road. It was in that very area that the app suddenly issued a drone strike warning. I could see Ukraine’s agile, mobile air defense units stationed along the horizon. The voice on the app spoke with calm urgency: “Proceed to the nearest shelter! Don’t be careless! Your overconfidence is your weakness!"

That last sentence stayed with me. “Your overconfidence is your weakness.” Europe, too, might hear it for what it is—not just a warning, but a mirror. And sometimes, overconfidence isn’t systemic—it’s personal. For the sake of time, I kept driving. That, too, was overconfidence at work.

A later announcement reminded: “Remember, your focus determines your reality.” And finally—calmer still, almost like a blessing: “The air alert is over. May the Force be with you.” At that very moment, it felt good to know that this force is built on effectiveness and results, not on bureaucracy and egos.

From Ruins to Balance

In the end, perhaps the most fitting image for Ukraine’s reconstruction is not a masterplan—but the gymnast on the wall in Borodianka. Light, focused and convident, and in perfect balance atop broken stone. A future built not on nostalgia or bureaucracy, but on courage, clarity, and the ability to adapt with strength and grace.

By Stefan Schandera, May 2025.

References

United Nations Development Programme. “Multi-storey Apartment Building in Borodianka Reopens after Extensive Restoration Work under UNITED24 Programme Supported by UNDP.” UNDP Ukraine, March 2024.
https://www.undp.org/ukraine/press-releases/multi-storey-apartment-building-borodianka-reopens-after-extensive-restoration-work-under-united24-programme-supported-undp

United Nations Development Programme. “Ensuring No One Is Left Behind: EU and UNDP Deploy Administrative Service Centre in War-Torn Borodianka.” UNDP Ukraine, April 2024.
https://www.undp.org/ukraine/press-releases/ensuring-no-one-left-behind-eu-and-undp-deploy-administrative-service-centre-war-torn-borodianka

Teteruk, Yevhenii, et al. “Assessment of the Rooftop PV Potential in Ukraine Using Geospatial Modelling for Energy Resilience.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.06937, December 2024.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.06937

Cotovio, Vasco, and Duarte Mendonca. “Banksy Unveils New Artwork in Ukraine.” CNN, November 12, 2022.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/12/europe/banksy-artwork-ukraine-intl

Brand Manual. “Rebuilding Ukraine with Modular Construction.” Brand Manual, 2024.
https://www.thebrandmanual.com/case-studies/rebuilding-ukraine-with-modular-construction

LRT. “Lithuania Sets Up Mobile Settlement in Ukraine for Families Who Lost Their Homes.” LRT English, April 12, 2023.
https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1960658/lithuania-sets-up-mobile-settlement-in-ukraine-for-families-who-lost-their-homes

The Kyiv Independent. “Ukraine to Receive $432 Million from World Bank Towards Transport Infrastructure Restoration.” The Kyiv Independent, 2025.
https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-to-receive-432-million-from-world-bank-towards-transport-infrastructure-restoration

Digital State. “Housing for Ukraine — Innovative Solutions for Reconstruction.” digitalstate.gov.ua, 2025.
https://digitalstate.gov.ua/news/tech/housing-for-ukraine-innovative-solutions-for-reconstruction

BBC News. “Poland Leak Scandal: Three Ministers and Speaker Resign.” BBC News, June 10, 2015. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33089659

(1) Western Balkans Effect

I use the term “Western Balkans Effect” to refer to a structural development failure in which large-scale external funding—if overly centralized and compliance-driven—creates parallel bureaucracies, undermines local ownership, and stalls real economic transformation. Despite massive international aid, countries in the Western Balkans have often experienced persistent stagnation, donor dependency, and growing public frustration. For me, the term serves as a cautionary marker for post-conflict reconstruction models that prioritize control over functionality (or input over output). See, for example:

Bartlett, Will. "International Assistance, Donor Interests, and State Capture in the Western Balkans." LSE Research Online, 2022

Pickering, Paula M. "Assessing International Aid for Local Governance in the Western Balkans." College of William & Mary, 2007

Bechev, Dimitar. "What Has Stopped EU Enlargement in the Western Balkans?" Carnegie Europe, 2022