‘We have been living in a temporary status for 12 years. In temporary apartments, with temporary certificates, on temporary conditions. But this is our life. Not on pause. It is our daily life. And all we want is not to wait forever. We want to know that we are seen, that we are important, that we are part of a country that has not been betrayed.’

The war did not start in 2022. It has been going on since 2014

When people talk about internally displaced persons (IDPs), they usually refer to the full-scale invasion of 2022. But this is only the second wave of the tragedy that began in 2014: the occupation of Crimea, parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and the first generation of IDPs.

People fled in a hurry, with their children by the hand, without their belongings, saving their lives. Children changed schools, students left their studies, families lost everything: their homes, their plans, their familiar world.

They did not choose to move. It was a choice between life and death. And it was a conscious choice to stay with Ukraine.

12 years in the ‘temporary’ status

From 2014 to 2025 - 12 years. Some people have been living as IDPs all this time. According to official figures, there are more than 5 million registered internally displaced persons, hundreds of thousands of whom moved back in the early years of the war.

Pensioners and people with disabilities are particularly vulnerable. They were left without housing, without a stable income, without support. And they are alone with state formalities, indifference and silence.

Formally, there are communities. But in reality, they don't.

In the Luhansk region, 37 territorial communities were formed as part of the decentralisation reform. However, after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, military administrations were established in only 26 of them - that is, only in those that were temporarily occupied or remained on the front line after 2022.

Another 11 communities do not have any governing body. At the same time, open Ukrainian state registers continue to record the formal existence of local governments in communities that were occupied in 2014.

For example, according to the Unified State Register, Serhii Ivanovych Kravchenko is still listed as the mayor of Luhansk.

This demonstrates the gap between official statistics and the actual situation: formally, communities exist, but in reality, there are no bodies, no management, and no responsibility for people. This means that IDPs from these communities remain legally ‘invisible’ - without protection and without representation.

Invisible old age is an invisible country

Almost half of IDPs are people of retirement age. Lonely, with chronic illnesses, no family and no real support. They are huddled in dormitories, sanatoriums, modular towns or rented accommodation in villages.

Temporality has turned into decades. And no one asks how they live anymore.

In 2023, the state only approved standards for temporary accommodation for IDPs for the first time. But tens of thousands of older people have been living in these conditions for over 10 years. Without dignity, without true recognition and without guarantees.

Housing? Only on paper

At the beginning of 2024, the government reported that 54,610 IDPs had received permanent housing. This is less than 1% of the total number of IDPs. And those who have received it are mostly employees of state institutions, judicial and law enforcement agencies.

And IDPs have been living in dormitories since 2014. They are not a priority.

There are non-transparent queues, complicated bureaucracy, and no mechanism for accounting for long-term displacement. Randomness instead of justice.

When a deposit is a sentence

CMU Resolution No. 332 stipulates that if an IDP has more than UAH 100,000 in his or her account, the accommodation allowance will be terminated. This applies even to people with disabilities of groups I-II.

But who are these ‘rich’ people? These are the ones who saved for housing, surgery, and treatment. Those who did not hide anything and trusted the state.

Monthly assistance:

• UAH 2,000 for IDPs;
• UAH 3,000 for people with disabilities and children.

These funds are barely enough to survive. But even this is deprived because a person has savings.

This is not about poverty. It's about disregard for responsibility. It's about punishment for being frugal.

Recovery programmes are not for everyone and not about everyone

The eRestoration programme is currently available only to those whose housing was destroyed or damaged after 24 February 2022, and only if they have physical access to the property.

In June 2024, the Verkhovna Rada passed Law No. 11161, which would expand the programme. It allows for compensation to be paid to all those who lost access to their housing after 2022, regardless of whether it was destroyed or not.

However, as of May 2025, the law has not yet been signed by the President, and thus has not entered into force.

This law could for the first time grant the right to compensation to residents of the temporarily occupied territories. But even this law does not cover IDPs from 2014-2021. That is, those who have been homeless for 12 years are not in the system.

Regional coefficient: discrimination based on place of birth

The compensation formula under eRestoration includes a regional coefficient. For Luhansk and Donetsk regions, it is 0.5, the lowest in Ukraine.

This means that people from these regions receive half as much for the same destroyed housing.

This is systemic discrimination. And it is built right into the state formula.

What needs to be done immediately

The situation in which some citizens have been living without access to decent housing for more than 12 years is unacceptable for a democratic state. Specific solutions are needed:

1. Abolish deposit restrictions for vulnerable categories of IDPs (including persons with disabilities) - Resolution No. 332 should be revised.
2. Expand rent compensation programmes, make them inclusive and fair - without discriminatory filters.
3. Introduce separate housing programmes at the national and regional levels, targeting older people and IDPs with reduced mobility.

The programmes should include cooperation between host communities and communities of origin. The latter should be able to participate through partnership, planning and information exchange.

1. Sign Law No. 11161 and supplement it with provisions that take into account the situation of IDPs in 2014-2021.
2. Ensure transparent reporting on all expenditures and results of state programmes to support IDPs.

Instead of an afterword: 12 years is not temporary

12 years is not about ‘temporarily losing their home.’ It is about a generation that grew up without a home, about old age spent in a dormitory, about disability that the state does not see.

This is when a child does not remember the street where he or she was born. When a mother says: ‘I didn't buy new furniture because we're coming back soon’ - and so on for 12 years. When a pensioner wakes up every morning in a temporary bed, which has become his last.

This is about the fact that tens of thousands of people do not fit into any programme, any formula, any agenda. They are statistics that are not updated. People who were told to wait. But time does not wait. They are getting older. They are leaving.

If the state fails to keep up with the pain of its citizens, it loses not only trust. It loses itself.

We cannot allow those who chose Ukraine to be forgotten by Ukraine.

Changes are needed not tomorrow. Change is needed now.