The government of Ukraine should resume social payments to residents of the Donbass region beyond Kiev’s control. This was announced on Tuesday by US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
“The government should optimize the process of granting pensions and resume payments, including those temporarily displaced who are actually displaced and people who live on government-uncontrolled territory, these are the means people have earned over the decades of their work,” Yovanovitch said.
She called on the government to make efforts to provide housing for the internally displaced. “The government should also provide adequate funding and political support,” the ambassador said.
At the same time, Yovanovitch pointed out inadmissible red tape with the formulation of social assistance to temporarily displaced persons.
“Registration of temporarily displaced persons, which is required from Ukrainians in order to receive pensions, is discriminatory and contrary to Western values, which Ukraine aspires to,” the ambassador emphasized.
Payments of pensions and social benefits to residents of the uncontrolled Kiev territories of Donbass were stopped by a Cabinet decision of November 7, 2014. Payments should be restored after the return of regions under the control of the Ukrainian authorities.