Valery Dubil: Kyiv is home to around 500,000 internally displaced persons, most of whom are in need of assistance.

Since 2014, 185,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions have moved to the capital. With the full-scale invasion, over 300,000 Ukrainians from Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv regions were forced to leave their homes due to enemy actions and relocate to Kyiv. The most pressing issue for IDPs has been and continues to be housing.

This was stated by Valeriy Dubil, the head of “Batkivshchyna” in Kyiv, the first deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Health Issues, and deputy to Yulia Tymoshenko.

“Our team systematically communicates with IDP centers, learns about their needs, and assists in addressing their issues. There are several such centers in Kyiv. For instance, Ya Mariupol, where more than 20,000 displaced persons from the city of Mariupol are registered. Here, residents have united and are rebuilding their lives from scratch. Those who left their homes due to Russia's actions are not just ordinary people, but also true specialists who are self-realizing in the center. Here, rehabilitation doctors, cardiologists, therapists, dentists, and psychologists work. Additionally, there are lawyers, recruiters, seamstresses, some who have found jobs in other companies, and others who provide their services at this center,” said Valeriy Dubil.

He noted that “Batkivshchyna” deputies in both the Kyiv City Council and the parliament will continue to initiate projects for a more comfortable life for IDPs.

“A critical issue is housing for vulnerable categories of IDPs. Imagine a person who is retired with a serious illness. Their pension is 6,000 UAH, and additional payments amount to 2,000 UAH. Rent in the most remote areas of Kyiv starts at 6,000 UAH. How can such a person afford to buy medicine and food? This is a rhetorical question. The queue for housing includes Chernobyl disaster liquidators, combat participants, large families, orphans, and other beneficiaries. The point is that IDP status does not automatically grant a privilege for social housing,” he emphasized.

Valeriy Dubil explained that there is a city scoring system that determines the priority for receiving social housing, but only if it is available on the city’s balance sheet.

“Our people from every corner of the country are amazing! Everyone, absolutely everyone, deserves a decent life, and our task is to continue caring for those who have suffered the most due to the actions of a terrorist state,” added Valeriy Dubil.