Ukraine is preparing to review the list of temporarily occupied territories in connection with discovered inaccuracies that negatively affected social benefits for residents, in particular residents of Mariupol. The Ministry of Community and Territorial Development is working on update Order No. 376, which defines settlements where hostilities are ongoing or have been ongoing.
Requests have already been sent to the Donetsk Regional Military Administration and the Ministry of Defense for a more precise definition of the terms of active fighting in Mariupol. Verification of information regarding other territories has also begun.
The ministry noted that it is currently analyzing legal and social factors in order to ensure a fair level of social protection for all citizens who suffered as a result of the war. In addition, it is planned to introduce a system mechanism for regularly updating information about hostilities in order to prevent similar situations in the future.
“The Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories is working on updating Order No. 376, which defines the list of territories where hostilities are taking place or are temporarily occupied. This decision was made due to the detected inaccuracies that affect social payments to affected citizens”, the ministry said.
The current order was concluded on the basis of Order No. 309 of the Ministry on Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, approved in December 2022. This document already indicated the date of the occupation of Mariupol, which the Ministry of Development did not change.
The need for revision was actualized by the public address of the head of the Center for the Study of the Occupation, Petro Andryushchenko, who said that one of the residents of Mariupol was denied social benefits due to the officially determined date of the occupation of the city — March 5, 2022. He noted that such wording belittles the importance of the heroic defense of Mariupol, which lasted more than 80 days.
The Ministry of Development is already working to eliminate this problem in order to ensure justice and timely support to all those who need it.
