On March 6, a meeting was held on ensuring the rights and freedoms of internally displaced persons, chaired by Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk.
The event was attended by Deputy Head of the Donetsk Regional State Administration Oleksandr Shevchenko, Head of the Council on Internally Displaced Persons at the Donetsk Regional State Administration, and heads of structural units of the regional state administration.
During the meeting, participants reviewed the results of previous working meetings and discussed current issues related to supporting internally displaced persons, in particular ensuring social guarantees and improving their living conditions.
In particular, they discussed the possibility of providing subsidies from the state budget to local budgets for the reconstruction and refurbishment of state-owned premises to create temporary housing funds for internally displaced persons.
They also reviewed the results of a pilot case study involving the Donetsk Regional State Administration, the Mariupol City Council, and the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine on identifying and removing procedural barriers in the process of creating such funds.
Special attention was paid to resolving problematic issues related to pension payments to Ukrainian citizens.
In addition, participants reviewed amendments to regulatory acts concerning compensation for housing and utility costs in places of temporary residence for internally displaced persons, improving mechanisms for providing housing to displaced persons, and developing instruments for preferential mortgage lending.
They also discussed the issue of access for relocated healthcare facilities to the Medical Guarantees Program packages, revision of the list of nursing care facilities, and strengthening the activities of the Councils on Internally Displaced Persons.
Based on the results of the meeting, further steps were identified to improve the regulatory and legal mechanisms for supporting internally displaced persons and to strengthen interagency coordination in this area.