Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Saturday to pay out payments to those who left Ukraine and came to Russia, including pensioners, pregnant women and people with special needs.
The decision, published by a government portal, provides for monthly pension payments of 10,000 rubles ($170) to those forced to leave Ukraine since February 18.
People with special needs also get the same monthly support, while pregnant women are entitled to a lump sum.
The decision includes payments to citizens of Ukraine as well as Donetsk and Luhansk, two breakaway entities in eastern Ukraine whose independence Russia recognized in February, in a move that Ukraine and Western countries have condemned as illegal.
On February 18, Putin ordered ten thousand rubles to be given to all those coming from Donetsk and Lugansk.
Moscow is issuing Russian passports to Ukrainians, which Kyiv and Washington see as Moscow’s illegal attempt to annex Ukrainian lands it has occupied as part of what they see as a colonial land grab.
Russia says it is conducting “special military operations” to protect itself and Russian-speakers in Ukraine it says are wanted by Ukrainian authorities, a charge Kyiv denies.
Source: Lebanon Debate
