The Ministry of Social Policy, Family, and Unity of Ukraine plans to create a department within its structure that will deal with the policy concerning internally displaced persons (IDPs). This will significantly improve support for IDPs, as the coordination of these policies was recently transferred to the Ministry of Social Policy. Currently, amidst constant shelling in frontline territories, the issue of protecting internally displaced persons and ensuring they receive proper social services is a priority. Denys Uliutin, the Minister of Social Policy, Family, and Unity, informed UNN journalist about this.
Any person who finds themselves in difficult life circumstances is the focus of our attention. Now we need to restructure the policy within the Ministry so that we can maximally cover the needs of IDPs, give people a clear answer to the question: what assistance from the state can they count on. Moreover, we will create a department in the new structure of the Ministry that will deal with IDP policy.
Uliutin reported in August that 4.4 million IDPs are registered in Ukraine. 900,000 is the number of IDPs receiving social benefits.
Context
In July of this year, the Cabinet of Ministers reorganized the Ministry of National Unity and merged it with the Ministry of Social Policy.
Thus, all functions of the Ministry of National Unity, including issues related to the reintegration of temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons, were transferred to the Ministry of Social Policy.
In 2024, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, criticized the government's policy regarding internally displaced persons, noting that the IDP strategy until 2025 contains declarative tasks that are difficult to evaluate.
Lubinets then stated that internally displaced persons need additional protection from the state, and there are shortcomings on the part of the executive branch regarding IDPs.