Return of Ukrainians to TOT — what the President's Office says

Recently, a number of Ukrainian politicians have made statements that thousands of internally displaced persons are returning to the temporarily occupied territories due to insufficient assistance from the state. However, the Office of the President denies this information.

This was reported by Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Iryna Vereshchuk via Telegram.

How the Office comments on statements about the return of Ukrainians to the TOT

Vereshchuk said that some politicians claim that Ukrainians are allegedly returning to the occupatied territories because the state is not helping them enough with housing, money, and jobs. However, the deputy head of the Office called such officials "irresponsible hype lovers". 

"You are lying when you talk about thousands of IDPs returning to the TOT. There is no confirmed statistics and it cannot be, it's just hype for the sake of loud headlines," emphasized Vereshchuk. 

In addition, she added that the state is doing everything it promised and should have done by law. She does not deny that this may not be enough, but noted that the country is at war and this is not a reason to go to the enemy occupation. The official also does not believe that thousands of Ukrainians are going to the Russian occupation because they lack 2-3 thousand hryvnias a month of state aid.

"Your statements are disrespectful to the millions of Ukrainians who have left the TOT and are building a new life. It is hard for them, but they are adapting. By the way, most of them are doing it successfully. With your statements, you support the enemy narrative that it is supposedly better under occupation. Therefore, your information activities are subversive and criminal in nature. This is especially harmful to the state now," Vereshchuk added.

What preceded it

As a reminder, former Deputy Minister for the Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons Heorhii Tuka recently said that Ukrainians are returning to the TOT in large numbers. The main reason is that they were able to arrange their lives on the territory controlled by Ukraine. 

In addition, MP Maksym Tkachenko said in an interview with Ukrinform that about 150,000 IDPs had returned to the occupied territories.