KIEV, November 19 (Sputnik) — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a law on internally displaced persons, the president’s spokesperson Svyatoslav Tsegolko said Wednesday.
“Internally displaced persons have been granted status. The president signed the law,” Tsegolko wrote on Twitter.
According to the official website of the Ukrainian president, some 465,000 people from the Donbas region are currently considered internally displaced. United Nations estimates this figure at 460,365 people. Ukraine’s Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, approved the law "On ensuring rights and freedoms of internally displaced persons" on October 20.
According to Poroshenko’s press office, Ukrainian President together with the country’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk agreed to include amendments to this law as soon as the new Rada starts its work, in order to address the issues of access to education, employment, housing, social payments and medical services.
In April, Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation in the country's southeast, where independence supporters refused to recognize the new government which ceased power in Kiev following a coup in February. On September 5, the warring sides agreed to a ceasefire. The conflict made hundreds of thousands of civilians flee their home into surrounding areas or neighbouring Russia.
