Vets of ATO began an open-ended protest under the Cabinet of Ministers

Vets of the ATO began an open-ended protest under the Cabinet of Ministers

Vets of the anti-terrorist operation from occupied and annexed territories began an open-ended protest under the Cabinet of Ministers. The fighters demand that the government provide housing for internally displaced persons who participated in the ATO.

Unfortunately, many Ukrainians who were forced to leave occupied territories due to Russian aggression and took up arms are still without housing. To provide housing for veterans, the Cabinet of Ministers issued Resolution No. 280, which provides monetary compensation for veteran-displaced persons.

However, the funds allocated for housing are meager. In order to wait for the state to take care of its citizens, some veterans will need to live 150 years — explains the organizer of the action, Mykola Hrekov.

The main demands of the veterans are a meeting with Prime Minister Groysman and a review of the budget regarding funding housing for veteran-displaced persons.

The protesters were approached by the first deputy minister for veterans’ affairs, Hryhoriy Halahan, to explain the position of the profile ministry on this issue.

“The Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs is actively working on ensuring internally displaced persons among combatants. We keep this issue under control, but we have only been working on this program for two months. Together with the Verkhovna Rada committee of Tretyakov this month we additionally redirected 39 million to provide housing for displaced veterans from ATO. This will be enough for 40-60 apartments,” stated the government official.

Also, Hryhoriy Halahan said that the ministry is additionally developing programs for loans and construction financing.

“Negotiations are underway with Western partners to somehow invest in housing construction. Now we are developing a loan and construction financing program so that a veteran can obtain housing in another way, because we understand that budget programs are not enough,” said Halahan.

This is not the first such action. Veterans have repeatedly drawn the government’s attention to the need to provide housing for displaced ATO veterans. Today six protesters decided to go on hunger strike.

Photo and video – Roman Petushkov

Text – Dmytro Oliynyk

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