Nearly 5M IDPs registered in Ukraine - Vereshchuk

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk said this on Ukrainian television, Ukrinform reports.

"We have a total of 4.9 million internally displaced persons, of which 2.6 million receive monthly payments. Some 3.6 million are those who became IDPs after February 24," she said.

According to Vereshchuk, almost half of IDPs do not receive state benefits because they have not applied for them.

At the same time, according to the Ministry of Social Policy, 158,000 people lost their right to payments from the state.

"The lion's share of these people are citizens of Ukraine who went abroad, live there permanently and receive payments from the countries where they live," the government official said.