One mln new internally displaced persons registered in Ukraine - PM

KYIV. April 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) - One million people have been registered as new internally displaced persons in Ukraine since February 24, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

"We support internally displaced persons. One million such people have already been registered," Shmyhal said in an address on Tuesday evening.

The authorities are continuing to distribute free-of-charge food packages, he said.

"The state is buying food products primarily from Ukrainian producers in order to keep them busy with orders. We have purchased 30% to 80% of the required amount as regards the majority of items," the prime minister said.

More than 5,000 employers have already sought clarification as to how they can receive compensation for hiring internally displaced persons, Shmyhal said.

Data released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Social Policy as of April 9 put the number of officially registered internally displaced persons at around 900,000.

Meanwhile, according to a UN map, the west of Ukraine is currently home to some 2.9 million internally displaced persons, whereas 1.4 million internally displaced persons are currently residing in Ukraine's central regions on the right bank of the Dnieper River, 1.3 million to the north-east of Kyiv, areas to the south of Kyiv and to the north of Odesa and Mykolaiv are each home to 357,000 internally displaced persons, and another 857,000 are residing on the left bank of the Dnieper River in the Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions.

Shmyhal also said that the business relocation program, backed by the Ukrainian government, has already helped transfer more than 250 manufacturing companies to other regions of the country.

"Of them, 121 enterprises are already functioning in full in the new place, while the others are now in the process of relocation. Another 430 enterprises are waiting for their turn," Shmyhal said.

The government's representative to the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnichuk, in turn, said on Telegram that at its meeting on Tuesday, the government allocated 200 million hryvni to the Economy Ministry to fund the new program under which employers are entitled to compensation for the money they spend on paying wages to internally displaced persons hired by them.

The Economy Ministry said earlier that the program to relocate Ukrainian enterprises began in mid-March. Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) has been helping relocate some enterprises as part of this program. JSC Ukrposhta, or Ukrainian Postal Service, has been handling the logistics of the highway transportation segment of the program, also subcontracting any companies able to transport cargoes, the ministry said.

Head of the Verkhovna Rada's Committee on Finances and Tax and Customs Policy Danylo Hetmantsev, in turn, said that 1,120 applications were received as of March 27 as part of the evacuation program. Of them, 368 applications were processed. As of March 27, 89 enterprises were relocated as part of the evacuation program and 47 of them resumed operations in the new place.

The Economy Ministry updated these figures on April 5, putting the number of request sfor relocation at 1,424, the number of transferred enterprises at 178, and the number of enterprises that resumed operations at 67.