The Verkhovna Rada on July 1 passed Bill No. 12301 with 307 votes in favor. The Law of Ukraine "On Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of Internally Displaced Persons" No. 1706-VII, adopted back in 2014, will lose force in three months. It will be replaced by a document written for a different reality: not the first weeks of evacuation, but years of forced displacement.
Registration — no longer a pass
The main change is not technical. Displaced persons will be able to enjoy the full scope of constitutional rights and freedoms regardless of whether they are registered as IDPs. This means: a person who for various reasons did not register will no longer find themselves in a legal vacuum regarding basic services.
Confirmation of status will be an electronic extract from the state database — paper certificates are being abolished. According to Olena Shuliak, chair of the relevant Rada committee, additional requirements can only be established when a person uses special benefits, and only to the extent necessary to prevent abuse.
Money — based on need, not paperwork
An assessment of individual needs of a person or family is being introduced — the size of financial support for housing will depend on it. This is a fundamental break from previous logic: previously, anyone with status received payment regardless of actual circumstances. Now the state declares targeted assistance.
"This approach will make it possible to move from providing assistance only based on formal status to more targeted support for a specific person or family"
Olena Shuliak, Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Organization of State Power and Urban Planning
Key caveat: the needs assessment mechanism is established in the law, but the methodology — who assesses, by what criteria, with what right to appeal — will be determined by bylaws. That is, the actual quality of targeted assistance will depend on what the Cabinet of Ministers prescribes in separate resolutions.
Housing: from temporary to owned
The law provides various mechanisms for providing IDPs with housing: preferential loans, purchase of housing for ownership, its purchase by the state, subsidized rent. This is a departure from the "temporary resettlement" concept that dominated from 2014.
From December 1, IDPs with the status of a combatant or a person with disabilities resulting from war can submit an application for a housing voucher worth 2 million hryvnias through Diia. As of May, 160 families have already completed agreements and purchased new housing through this mechanism. In February, the Cabinet of Ministers launched interest-free loans for IDPs up to 430,000 hryvnias for settling in a new location.
New terminology — not bureaucracy
For the first time, the legislation clearly distinguishes between the concepts of "adaptation," "integration," and "reintegration" of IDPs. This is not just semantics: the set of available support programs will depend on which "stage" a person is officially at. The law also regulates the activities of temporary accommodation facilities — settlements can officially be equipped with modular units, displaced persons can live in dormitories, hotels, and other suitable premises.
The law will come into force after the old one loses force — that is, approximately in October 2026. If the Cabinet of Ministers approves the needs assessment methodology by then, targeted assistance will become reality; if not — the norm will exist only on paper, and 4.6 million registered IDPs will receive a new law with old practices.
