This is how Ukraine ousts its citizens back to “LPR” and “DPR”. Part 2

Let’s go back to 2014 for a minute.

In July and August 2014, people flee their homes and leave the conflict zone with one suitcase only. They are running away from “Russian brothers’” help.

This is how Ukraine ousts its citizens back to “LPR” and “DPR”. Part 1

Internally displaced persons have been turned into new serfs and the state uses special methods to make people go back to “L/DPR”.

The second kind of torture is to start on August 1. All retirees were forced to use only “Oschadbank” (Ukrainian state bank) to get their pensions. Now they have to get a special retiree’s certificate in this bank and they are to get their pension only with it and only in person. They will not be able to ask their relatives to do it even if they get special permits for them. This means that even if an elderly person is disabled, cannot walk or is bedridden, he or she will have to find a way to get to the ATM of the bank him- or herself.

No one knows how it is going to be and what, actually, bedridden people are supposed to do.

The government explains that there are a lot of frauds among retirees, like people who live on the occupied territory and get their pensions on the territory which is controlled by Ukraine. This means they finance terrorism.

Will they have to return to the occupied territory now?

Depo.Donbas talked to a relocated family from the Donbas. They have lived in Kyiv for two years and now maybe they will have to return to their occupied city where no one is waiting for them. On the other hand, it is impossible for them to remain on the territory which is controlled by Ukraine. We will not reveal their names as they may face coming back to “DPR”.

This internally displaced family consists of four retirees: a man who is 60, his wife who is 58 and her parents, a mother, who is 73 and a father who is 80 and who is a disabled man without a leg. They have never supported “DPR”, they did not vote at the separatist “referendum” and asked their neighbours not to go there. As many other people, they left their home in the summer of 2014 and went to the capital as their friends helped to find some accommodation in a hall of residence there. They were going to spend two months in Kyiv but they stayed there for two years.

“Young” retirees found jobs and they work late to be able to pay the rent and the credit which they had taken before the war. The older ones miss their home as here they are practically locked in the room, especially the disabled man. Their children and grandchildren do help them but they live in rented flats themselves. The retirees do not ask anyone for anything, they solve their problems themselves and they understand all the difficulties the government creates.

Recently, they were informed by the hall of residence that they will not be able to stay there in 2017. The state, in its turn, does everything to make their lives even more difficult.

Even if they put all their pensions together, it will not be enough to rent a flat in Kyiv. They cannot move to a village or a small town either as they “young” retirees will not be able to work and to pay the credit.

“If we cannot reach any agreement with the hall of residence, maybe we will have to return to the Donbas though we do not know how we will live there. It will be impossible to get Ukrainian pensions and we just do not want to get “DPR” ones and to face all the humiliating  and dangerous procedures those who return home have to go through. They will ask us if we support Ukraine and why we have spent two years in Kyiv”, says the 58-year-old woman.

Lawyers advice retirees to address the European Court on Human Rights as Ukraine does not protect the right of its citizens. They are 100% sure that the retirees will win.

It would be interesting to hear what will say the authorities who oust people on occupied territory where their lives will be endangered and where they will be victims of anti-Ukrainian propaganda.

What can internally displaced retirees do?

Yuriy Harbuz, Governor of the Luhansk region has recently expressed his opinion on the problem. He does not agree with the policy of the government and offers to divide the money Ukrainian citizens get: the pensions and the welfare assistance for IDPs.

He thinks that pensions are a duty of the state.

Luhansk region governor says that he does not mind if people from occupied territories come to the Ukrainian territory to get their pensions but he is against giving them welfare assistance.

The UN Refugee Agency shares this opinion as well though Ukrainian government does not listen to the advice given to it.

Viktoria Ivanova

New service "Explain Ukraine". This is a daily mailout of three articles which were written about the situation in the Donbas by Donbas journalists and translated into English. Honest vision of people who work in the field is unbiased and fresh which is crucial in the world which is full of desinformation and propaganda. We try to share this vision in out daily mailout.  You can subscribe here.