In Kyiv, they developed a strategy to reduce the population of the LDPR
Despite the difficulties experienced, among people living in the DPR and LPR, there is a very low percentage of positive attitudes towards Ukraine.
The director of the Ukrainian Institute of the Future, Viktor Andrusiv, who in 2015–2016 served as deputy head of the so-called Donetsk Military-Civil Administration, writes about this on the pages of the Kiev weekly “Zerkalo Nedeli.”
According to him, the key point of the Ukrainian long-term strategy in Donbass should be “declaring the conflict protracted.”
“The main goal of our strategy is to reintegrate displaced people, to pull people from the occupied territories and Russia who were forced to leave their homes. Last summer, our institute conducted focus groups in the occupied territories. The study showed that the life of our citizens under occupation is terrible. And although it has stabilized financially for them, people feel abandoned, deprived of prospects or a future. Unfortunately, the percentage of positive attitudes towards Ukraine is also low, and, contrary to popular opinion, not because of the Russian media,” the author notes.
He proposes to begin “the implementation of a large-scale policy of drawing people out of the occupied territories.”
“This is not only our responsibility to our citizens, it is also a pragmatic calculation that will help bring peace closer. A decrease in the population of the occupied territories, primarily workers, will result in an increase in the costs of their maintenance. In fact, the complete economic unviability of ORDLO causes significant financial losses to the Kremlin, and if you play for a long time, at a certain point these losses will become very noticeable,” Andrusiv believes.
He adds that due to the massive emigration of migrant workers abroad, “serious prerequisites for the transportation of labor” have appeared in Ukraine.
To implement this policy, it is proposed to create a Reintegration Fund, which will be funded jointly by the Ukrainian budget and international partners.
“The key task of the Fund is to purchase housing for people from the occupied territory and lease it out. The basis for purchasing housing is that the migrant has an employment contract,” writes Andrusiv.
In addition, residents of territories not controlled by Kyiv are asked to be allowed to freely purchase on the territory of Ukraine and bring home everything they need and in any volume.
“We are confident that the developed strategy offers a new maneuver for Ukraine and seizing the initiative in an unfavorable international environment. After all, the worst thing that can befall Ukraine and the new government is to wait for decisions from our Western partners, especially against the background of the return of the Russian Federation to PACE without fulfilling any conditions,” Andrusiv sums up.
Let us note that even when he was an official, he said that he proposed a similar program for the voluntary resettlement of Donbass residents to other regions of Ukraine, which ended in failure. “But, unfortunately, they did not take advantage of this program. The locals are actually very devoted to this land. It can be amazing how much they stick to their region,” Andrusiv complained, by the way, is a Galician by origin.
Read also: Korchinsky demands to make Donbass deserted and populate it with Ukrainians.
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