Ukrainians who had abandoned regions that Russia took control of to build a new new life in places still under Kyiv’s control, are returning to their original homes. Critics say, this is because of Ukraine’s failure to provide them with housing and social assistance, The Times reported.
As per Maksym Tkachenko, an MP from President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ruling party, nearly 150,000 people have quit efforts to start afresh in Ukraine and are left with no option but to return to their hometowns.
“They have not received enough assistance from the state — no housing, no social support, compensation [for losses], work,” Tkachenko told the Ukrinform website.
He further alleged that internally displaced Ukrainians were also facing “discrimination” and “scepticism” in their efforts to get jobs.
However, he soon retracted the statistics. “There is no such data. This was my baseless and emotional assumption,” he said.
Notably, Tkachenko was not the only one to claim that Ukrainians were returning to Moscow-controlled regions. Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the exiled mayor of Mariupol, earlier said that at least 50,000 people had returned to the port city which was captured by Russia in 2022.
However, he clarified that it was only because people “didn’t have enough money” and had “nothing to do with pro-Russian ideology.”
“People simply have nowhere to live. If they work, there is not enough money to pay the rent,” he said. “They are forced to return. This has nothing to do with.”
Moscow has also changed the rules regarding registration of properties in regions controlled by it. Andryushchenko wrote on Telegram that thousands of others went to Mariupol to re-register their ownership of properties as per the new rules, and later left.
After taking control of Mariupol Russia had said it would “nationalise” private property if people didn’t show relevant documents to occupying Kremlin forces in person.
Last month, Olena Shuliak, the head of Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, admitted that efforts to to support internally displaced people had “completely failed”. As per the World Bank, it will cost $150 billion to restore houses in Ukraine. Shuliak says, based on current funding levels, the work would take 1,575 years.