Deputy Head of the Office of the President Iryna Vereshchuk met with representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ukraine, Karolina Lindholm Billing.
The main topic of the meeting was the support for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the increase in funding for the "Prykhystok" program by the UNHCR.
This year, international donors allocated more than UAH 615 million to support the project. Thanks to the joint efforts of the Office of the President, UNHCR, the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development, the funding has been increased by an additional UAH 265 million. This will allow the program to continue through the end of 2024.
Karolina Lindholm Billing confirmed that the funding increase will take place. Iryna Vereshchuk expressed her gratitude for the essential and timely support for the IDPs.
UNHCR is one of Ukraine's main international partners in supporting IDPs. Since January of this year, it has been a financial donor to the government’s "Prykhystok" program. This project provides compensation for utility costs to those who offer free accommodation to internally displaced persons.
Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, nearly 1.2 million IDPs have benefited from the "Prykhystok" program. Currently, around 65,000 households are participating in the program, hosting more than 160,000 IDPs.