OVERVIEW
The Government decision to suspend social payments, including pensions, for an estimated 600,000 displaced people, pending verification of their status increases humanitarian suffering. While the United Nations recognises the legitimate right of the Government to combat fraud, it did appeal to the Government to stop suspending IDPs' certificates on the basis of data provided outside the procedure established by law; to de-link the pensions and social payments from the IDP status and elaborate a scheme on prevention of fraud based on national and international human rights standards. It did also recommend for a transparent system, one that provides clear information about the criteria for any cancellation of benefits and proper communication to those concerned to be put in place.
Another growing concern is the recurring Government’s decision to close checkpoints along the ‘contact line’, including closure on 8 April of the only functional one in Luhanska oblast, at Stanytsia Luhanska (on average 96,000 people crossings a month). This, together with the failure to open the newly built Zolote checkpoint in Luhansk region due to de facto authorities’ unwillingness to support the initiative on their side, resulted in a substantial overload of other crossing points. As a result, many civilians continue to queue for hours, often at night, in unsafe locations just to access social payments, basic services or visit their families and properties. The checkpoint closures also force people to illegally cross the ‘contact line’ in an area contaminated by explosive remnants of war and landmines or make a detour through the Russian Federation, crossing checkpoint in Milove which is overloaded, poorly equipped and has no capacity to process crossing quickly enough. A tragic incident resulting in at least 12 civilian casualties, of which four fatalities was recorded in the night of 27 April, when an area where civilian cars were queuing overnight to cross the contact line came under shelling is of grave concern.
Indiscriminate military actions damaged civilian facilities, gas pipelines, houses and schools in the main hotspots, especially around Zaitseve and Donetsk. As an example, a school in Zaitseve suffered damages during the shelling in the beginning of April, further affecting access to education