Shulyak: IDPs make a difficult choice when faced with a dilemma: to live under occupation or in poverty without state support

“The number of internally displaced persons in Ukraine is decreasing,” says Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.

And no, there is no need to immediately applaud and rejoice for our fellow citizens after this phrase. The number of IDPs is decreasing not because they find a new home in the government-controlled territory. They simply return to the occupation. They make their difficult choice, facing a dilemma: to live under occupation or in poverty without state support – they return to the TOT.

In fact, the state policy on supporting IDPs has completely failed and is being covered up with pittance payments like a fig leaf.

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The main and basic need of IDPs is their own housing. Two government programmes – eRestoration and eHouse – could help. Moreover, they are even synchronised: the certificate can be used as a down payment on a mortgage. It sounds powerful, but it is only on paper.

The state mortgage programme is simply inaccessible to IDPs, of whom only a few have been able to take advantage of it.

eRestoration for 2025 does not provide for state funding at all, only relatively small funds from international donors. And even if there were, there are no payments for housing in the TOT under the eRestoration programme, despite the successful Melitopol experiment. When will they be? Nobody knows.

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At this time, the occupier is launching a large-scale information campaign. Of course, this campaign contains more lies and disinformation, but already now they are offering 45 thousand rubles in compensation per square metre of destroyed housing.

In the meantime, we hold endless forums and roundtables on the return of Ukrainians from abroad, calling for the creation of conditions for millions to return after the war.

Working discussions on the budget for 2025 are currently underway. I and the Committee on State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning submitted amendments to provide for funding for eRestoration. The result so far is like running in place – there are efforts, but no progress.

If we do not change the approach to the IDP issue, we will get a part of society that will be filled with hatred for everyone, people who have become unnecessary in their own country. The consequences of such an attitude will be felt even through generations and will be inherited as an example of how the state can “take care” of its people.

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