The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, at the urging of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has made a decision to provide targeted assistance to supplement pensions to members of the families of military personnel, including volunteers who died participating in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) and Joint Force Operation (JFO).
The head of state said that the provision of the families of the deceased ATO/JFO participants with pensions was unfair. There was a difference in the amount of payments to the relatives of the military personnel who died in 2014-2015, and the relatives of those heroes who died later.
"I was in Lutsk recently, and, frankly, it was very unpleasant when one mother said: "Are our children who died defending Ukraine worse than those children who died now, in 2019-2020? Is this really fair?" This is very unfair. Parents received different sums of money. I said that I would fix this issue and began speaking to the government. And I am very grateful to them that they have solved this issue," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The President said that this decision will apply to 9,000 family members of the dead servicemen.
"We do not have the worst. They are all heroes. Everyone is important for us. We are still proud of them. We are equally grateful to all of them for the fact that they defended our Ukraine, our territorial integrity and our sovereignty," the Head of State said.
Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Maryna Lazebna said that the President instructed the government to promptly resolve the issues of provision of family members of military personnel who died in the early years of the war with pensions.
"These are exactly those servicemen who did not have good financial support. They did not have allowances for length of service, military rank. Actually, pensions in their families today are low – they have come to be one and a half or twice lower than the current ones. Therefore, the government found the resources and opportunities to resolve this issue and established targeted extra payments to pensions," Maryna Lazebna said.
The Minister of Social Policy assured that from now on, the smallest pension payment to families of the deceased heroes with one family member who has disabilities, will be UAH 7,800, if two members with disabilities it will be UAH 12,200, three – the maximum pension amount will be UAH 17,120.
"The Pension Fund is now reviewing pensions, and in September families will receive two sums – for August and for September," Maryna Lazebna said.
The relatives of the fallen heroes supported the President's decision and expressed their gratitude to him for the initiative.