Ukrainian citizens who participated in the liquidation of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant catastrophe and suffered from its outcomes regularly address the national authorities regarding poor social protection and no access to healthcare of adequate quality in adequate amounts. OPPOSITION PLATFORM – FOR LIFE MP Serhiy Lovochkin therefore addressed Ukraine’s PM Denys Shmyhal with an inquiry demanding urgent measures aimed at significant improvement of social protection and healthcare quality for those who participated in the Chornobyl disaster liquidation and suffered from its outcomes.

In his inquiry, Lovochkin notes the need for urgent and full compliance with the rulings of the Constitutional Court on restoration of privileges and allowances to Chornobyl veterans, to develop a network of special healthcare institutions for them, to provide them with free medicine, and to restore special budget programs for Chornobyl veterans’ healthcare.

One of the reasons behind the situation, the MP believes, is that since 2014, the government stopped budget funding of some Chornobyl programs and significantly cut others. The Cabinet wound down housing provision program and that for treatment of cancer patients among Chornobyl veterans. Social protection program for those who suffered from the Chornobyl disaster although better funded recently, remains lower in 2021 compared to 2013 by 2 percent, while consumer prices rose by 2,7-fold over these years. Nominally, the decrease in funding since 2013 has reached 5 percent, and slid by 3.6 times in dollar terms.

Another reason for poor social protection of Chornobyl veterans, Lovochkin says, is consistent cut of their privileges since 2014 and failure to comply with the Constitutional Court’s ruling to restore the benefits.

“These steps by the administration have resulted in significant lowering of living standards for those who survived the Chornobyl disaster and participated in its liquidation,” the inquiry reads.