“Last month, there was, let’s say, a peak in evacuation, when there was a really large flow of people and a bottleneck, but we drew the government’s attention directly. After our prime minister visited the transit center, the issue of resettlement, especially the resettlement of people with limited mobility, was resolved very quickly,” Pryma said.
After the August problems, the Ukrainian government became more actively involved in evacuation and resettlement, and is now trying to move more than 17,000 people from the war zone, Pryma said.
Authorities also announced a 1 billion hryvnia subsidy for local communities for the construction of temporary shelters, as well as simplified procedures for the transfer of state and municipal institutions to resettle refugees.
“Mostly families with children, and the elderly, are sheltered in different state dorms for free. Yes, it’s not your own flat, but still way better than living under relentless bombardment,” Pryma said, adding that some of the dorms have been freshly repaired.
There are a total of 1,095 temporary accommodation facilities in Ukraine, providing more than 77,000 beds for displaced people, of which about 6,200 beds remain vacant, the development ministry said.
In addition to the temporary housing, local governments are allocating hundreds of millions of hryvnia from local budgets for repair work and other compensation, as well as issuing low interest loans for new flats.