600,000 people from regions captured by terrorists to get pensions on territories under Ukraine's control

"Only the Kremlin is responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe looming in Donetsk and Luhansk. We are doing and will do our utmost. Moreover, the Government supplies electricity and gas there," Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk stated on Wednesday, November 26, at the last meeting of the current Government.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed that the Government is unable to send money for social benefits, salaries and pensions to the citizens "who are hostages of Russian gangsters on some territories of Donetsk and Luhansk": "We cannot deliver cash there. They [terrorists led by Russia. - ed.] are robbing banks, looting people, robbing collector cars. We cannot even deliver the humanitarian aid there, which the Government tried to deliver a number of times, but we had never managed to cross the checkpoints of Russian terrorists."

The Government clearly stated that funds of every person, which he/she should get, are accumulated. "As soon as the Kremlin takes its gangsters from Ukraine and we restore control over the whole territory of the Ukrainian state, including Donetsk and Luhansk, we will be able to pay all social payments," he underlined.

The Prime Minister also reminded that the cost of gas and electricity will be charged from the sums reserved for government payments in Donetsk and Luhansk. "The Government will submit to the Parliament a relevant law. Everybody pays in Ukraine, so people there have to pay. However, we’ll not allow people there to get frozen. There are our citizens there", Arseniy Yatsenyuk emphasized.

He informed that 600 thousand people from the territories captured by terrorists would be able to get their pensions on the territories controlled by Ukraine.

According to him, the situation in the social sphere is difficult: "Our achievement is that we have paid all pensions, all salaries, all social benefits. This is despite the fact that now Ukraine has temporarily displaced persons, which had never happened before. "

Approximately half a million persons have been registered as temporarily displaced, the Prime Minister stressed, and they get extra help – up to UAH 2400 per family: "They also receive assistance for treatment, they should be settled. This means hundreds of millions of hryvnias allocating from the state budget because people are suffering, and we must avoid a humanitarian catastrophe."

"Objectively, when this Government took office, nobody promised any improvement. In this year we paid what we could pay," Arseniy Yatsenyuk said and recalled that some EU countries, including Greece, have reduced the volume of social benefits:"Greece decreased some social expenditure by 40%, while we did not cut anything."