Volker said Kyiv was not doing enough for Ukrainians living in separatist-held Donbass

Ukrainian government was not doing enough to reach out to Ukrainians living in separatist-held territories. Kurt Volker, the special representative of the U.S. State Department for Ukraine told this in an interview with Radio Liberty, published on September 14.

He said Poroshenko’s government has also failed to develop a reintegration plan for when the conflict does end.

Preliminary ideas, he said, “[do not] enjoy strong political backing and there is little emphasis that this should be a priority for the Ukrainian government to figure out how it can reach its own citizens and be as proactive as possible in trying to make their lives better”.

“It’s a shame because those people [living in separatist-held areas] have gone through a lot. It causes them to be very sour on the government in Kyiv”, - Volker added.

He highlighted the cases of elderly people, “people with the least mobility”, and said Kyiv should work with the Red Cross to help get government pensions to those people.

The United Nations on September 12 urged the Ukrainian authorities to enforce the decision of the Supreme Court of Ukraine to pay pensions to both internally displaced persons and residents of the uncontrolled territories of eastern Ukraine.

The human rights organization Human Rights Watch in late August stated that the policy of Kyiv on pensioners from the districts occupied by the militants is discriminatory.