Ukraine may grant the Red Cross the authority to pay pensions to pensioners from the uncontrolled part of Donbass, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The governor of the Donetsk region, Pavel Zhebrivsky, appointed by Kiev, said this in an interview with Deutsch Welle.
“I recently met with representatives of the Red Cross. ... If the Red Cross undertakes to pay pensions in the territory temporarily occupied by Russia and sees who it pays, then the Ukrainian government, I think, will not object. So far, we have not been able to work out mechanisms on how to make payments without identification either with donors or with anyone,” Zhebrivsky said.
According to him, among the registered 3,3 million pensioners - internally displaced persons, only about 200-250 thousand permanently reside in the territory controlled by Ukraine. Most of the complaints come from the fact that such pensioners must come once or twice every six months to the Oschadbank branch to undergo identification. Otherwise, pension payment may be blocked.
Zhebrivsky states that such identification is supposedly necessary in order for the pension to be accrued to the real recipients.
“There are no Ukrainian banks in this territory. The state of Ukraine maintains its obligations to pay pensions, but wants to see who it pays, that the payment goes to the right person. Is this person alive or not? This man’s bank card was either taken away by the militants, or excuse me, his alcoholic son, who receives a pension instead of his parents and leaves the elderly without a livelihood!” – Zhebrivsky cynically assures.
He noted that a particularly critical situation has developed with those pensioners in uncontrolled territories who do not have the opportunity to move independently and, accordingly, come to the controlled territory to undergo identification. Many people are also afraid to do this out of fear.
According to him, “in the Donetsk region there are about 300-350 thousand people who, for various reasons, do not yet receive Ukrainian pensions.”