Ukrainian Parliament Appoints New Minister Responsible for Refugees

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, has appointed Oleksii Chernyshov as the head of the newly created Ministry of National Unity, Ukrinform reported quoting Ukraine’s lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak.  

The new ministry is in the process of establishing its work portfolio and to allocate its budget and organizational procedures. It is reported that its initial budget will be Hr.150 million ($3.6 million). 

237 lawmakers voted in favor of the proposals against the minimum required for the decision to pass of 226. 

The Ministry of National Unity was conceived by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky as an institution aimed at creating policies that will help Ukrainian refugees abroad. 

Announced by the president in Aug. 2024, the concepts of the Ministry remain vague in terms of policies it should deliver. It might aim to help Ukrainian refugees in other countries stay “united”, according to the president: "Along with the usual work through the system of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, we discussed this with the Prime Minister, we are preparing to launch a new institution that will ensure sufficient strength of global Ukrainian unity.

“Millions of our people in other countries, their ties and relations with Ukraine, the protection of our common interests as a nation - all this will be the sphere of responsibility of the new institution. In fact, it should be the ministry of Ukrainian unity and countering Russian influence on Ukrainians. First of all, abroad," the President’s Office website said quoting Zelensky.

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Who Is Oleksii Chernyshov?

Chernyshov was a businessman who made the switch to politics, obtaining senior government positions after Zelensky came to power. 

During 1998 - 2013, he worked for the US Westinghouse Electric Company, Telesens AG subsidiary and became a president of the AVEC group of commercial real estate companies, according to Wikipedia. 

In 2019, he became head of Kyiv’s Regional State Administration – a senior official responsible for Kyiv urban policy alongside the mayor Vitalii Klitschko. He then proceeded to become a Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, the key institution responsible for infrastructure and development projects in Ukraine’s regions. 

The government appointed Chernyshov head of Ukraine’s key gas transmitter, Naftogaz, in the autumn of 2022. Now Chernyshov will lead the ministry responsible for Ukrainian refugees. 

What are the primary causes of displacement in Ukraine?

“No one knows how many Ukrainians are abroad - 8-9 million, or maybe 10 million”, Chernyshov said in Ukraine’s parliament as he was presented as the new minister, Interfax-Ukraine reported. 

In fact,  slightly more than 4.1 million fled Ukraine as a consequence of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and obtained temporary protected status in the EU, according to Eurostat. Ukrainians mostly fled to Germany, Poland, and Czechia.

Source: Eurostat.  

Ukrainians also fled to non-EU countries, but Ukraine’s Centre for Economic Strategy think tank estimated the number of refugees does not exceed 6.2 million. 

The author of the research Dariia Mykhailyshyna estimated that the number of refugees around the world varies depending on the data source, but 3.8-4.7 million Ukrainians fled to Europe, the USA and Canada, while around 1.5 million are in Russia. 

Almost a quarter of all Ukrainian refugees left the Zaporizhzhia region, and nearly a fifth left Kyiv and the Kyiv region. Many refugees lost most of their income after the start of the war. 

The EU provided Ukrainians the right to receive temporary protected status, which enabled them to reside, work, receive education and healthcare in all EU countries. 

Although most Ukrainians currently abroad say they plan to return and prefer life in Ukraine, the longer the war lasts, the more Ukrainians will find work abroad and adapt to life outside Ukraine, the report says. 

“Even if they like life in Ukraine more than living abroad, some Ukrainians believe that the prospects for their children are better abroad. Hence, they are ready to endure temporary inconvenience for their children’s future,” CES wrote. 

Another problem for Ukraine’s refugees abroad is the destruction of their housing at home. 

Because of the vagueness of the aims of this new Ministry of Unity, CEO of the ZMINA human rights center Alyona Lunova opposed the idea of its creation. “Let’s wait for the description of what it will do, but for now, it does not reflect our vision (in particular, regarding the focus exclusively on the issue of Ukrainians abroad),” Lunova wrote in her Facebook post.

“We continue to insist on the need to maintain a ministry in the Government responsible for those affected by the war, regardless of where they are: in the temporary occupied territories, the free territories of Ukraine or abroad,” she added.