Ukrainian officials in November counted 4.9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), with 3.6 million of them receiving IDP status after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022, Ukrinform reported.
Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s Minister of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, said that nearly half of all internally displaced persons are not receiving government benefits because they have not formally applied.
IDP status grants Ukrainian citizens the right to receive certain social benefits from the government such as cash payments or access to critical services.
A monthly government housing allowance of Hr 3,000 ($83) for persons with disabilities and children, and Hr 2,000 ($55) for all other internally displaced persons is provided for individuals with IDP status.
She said that 158,000 IDPs lost their right to welfare payments, and that "the lion's share of these people are those citizens of Ukraine who went abroad, live there permanently, and receive payments from the states where they live.”
There is no accurate data on how many Ukrainians have returned to their homes from abroad or from other regions of Ukraine.
In Kharkiv, the government estimates just 25,000 people returned since Ukrainian forces liberated large swaths of territory from Russian occupation earlier this year.
Vereshchuk said that IDP status will not expire until the end of the war.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
