The United States emphasizes the need to restore social benefits for internally displaced persons (IDPs), as well as for those who live in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch has said.
The government should optimize the process of granting pensions and restore the payments to which Ukrainians are entitled. This includes temporarily displaced persons, who have really been displaced, and people who live in non-government controlled territory. These are the means that people have earned over the decades of their work, Yovanovitch said at a press conference in Kyiv on Nov.28.
The diplomat also noted that the government should reduce the bureaucratic burden on IDPs who are trying to get social assistance.
The registration of IDPs, which is required from Ukrainians in order to receive pensions, is discriminatory and contradictory to Western values, which Ukraine seeks, the ambassador said.
She also said that the government should make efforts to provide housing for internally displaced persons.
According to Yovanovitch, the government should also provide proper funding and political support to the Ministry for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons.
