Pensioners travel outside of separatist areas to get their cash

Olga, a 60-year old pensioner from rebel-held Krasny Luch in Luhansk Oblast, travels to the Ukrainian controlled city of Lysychansk to collect her Hr 1,100 per month  – $68.75. Like many other pensioners, she found an easy way to get around the government’s decision. She simply registered her home in government-controlled areas, outside of her actual residence in occupied territories. She did not give her last name for fear of reprisals.

She also gets a pension from the separatist Luhansk People’s Republic, some Hr 1,800  – $112.50 – per month, and is waiting for a promised increase. “They promise that we’ll live just like in Soviet times,” Olga said.

Mariya Kosheleva, head of the state pension fund of Lysychansk in Luhansk Oblast, says that retirees have to produce documents that prove their entitlement to a pension, and bring along a Lysychansk resident who can confirm that the applicant lives at the address.

Some 25,000 people from separatist areas have applied for pensions in the city since September, and money was paid to 13,000 of them, she said. The city itself had more than 100,000 residents before the war.

The local authorities in many government-controlled territories of Donbas report the same trend. Oleksiy Reva, mayor of Artyomovsk in Donetsk Oblast, told the Kyiv Post that more than 48,000 people from occupied territories had come to get pensions and social benefits.

To qualify for a pension, residents of occupied territories need to get documentary proof of residence in government-controlled territories by the end of this year, according to a Cabinet resolution of Nov. 25.
The number of pensioners claiming their money has been going down since the new resolution came into effect. In Lysychansk, only 941 applications have been accepted since the new rules came into effect.

Hundreds more pensioners had applied for their cash daily beforehand, the pension fund head said.

Pensioners from the occupied territories are rushing to re-register. Mykola Lenko, mayor of Novgorodske in Donetsk Oblast, told the Kyiv Post that every employee of the city council had had to register about 10 people from insurgent territories at his or her address to let them get their pensions and social benefits. His town is controlled by the central authorities.

Kosheleva of the Lysychansk pension fund said that initially the fund itself registered such people at its address to assist them in getting their money.

The government’s Nov. 5 decision to stop payments to occupied territories has caused a lot of controversy. Supporters of the decision have said that people in separatist-controlled areas should be paid by the insurgents and their backers in Russia or leave.

Critics, however, said that the government’s approach is inhumane and fails to take into account those who are incapable of traveling outside the regions, putting them on the brink of survival.

“What if an old man can’t walk and is lying on his bed?” exclaims Lenko, the mayor of Novgorodske.
Oleksiy Reva, mayor of Artyomovsk, said that many people can’t afford moving to Ukrainian areas and renting an apartment there.

“What can a single mother do who hasn’t gotten child benefits for five months?” he says. “This is a gigantic number of people left to their own devices. This is a humanitarian catastrophe.”

The money situation in separatist-controlled territories varies hugely, depending on locality. Some, like Olga of Krasny Luch, get extra payments from the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.

But Dmitry Vasilek, a 78-year old pensioner from Pervomaisk in the same Luhansk Oblast, said that in his city locals are not receiving any money. Vasilek has moved to Lysychansk from Pervomaisk.

Social networks are starting to report hunger in separatist-controlled areas, as well as hunger riots. But the Kyiv Post has not been able to obtain independent confirmation of such reports.

Olga, the pensioner, said that food supplied from Ukrainian-controlled areas was abundant in stores in Krasny Luch and available for those who had money. She said, however, that many businesses were operating but not paying wages, while teachers got paid in October for the first time since the conflict started in spring.

Locals have had to resort to the subsistence economy, growing vegetables and raising livestock to survive. “We have cattle and sell milk,” Olga said.

She added that some made ends meet by getting food from eight Russian “aid” convoys which have also contained military equipment for the Kremlin proxies.

In Pervomaisk, the situation is more difficult, with much of the city ruined by shelling and few businesses working, Vasilek said.

Some observers argue that economic problems and a lack of payments in the separatist republics are already having an impact on people’s political views.

While people in Ukrainian-held areas are beginning to realize the benefits of living in Ukraine, some of those in insurgent territories are wavering in their allegiance to separatist republics, said Larisa Ivannitskaya, a pro-Ukrainian activist in Lysychansk.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at reaganx84@gmail.com.