Inhabitant of the village of Prishib, Slavyanoserbsky district, Luhansk regionLUHANSK, Jan 25 Issue of Kiev paying pensions to residents of Donbass remains unresolved, Maria Kovshar, spokeswoman for the delegation of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic at the talks on resolving the conflict in the region, said on Tuesday. Earlier, negotiations were held between the political, humanitarian and economic subgroups of the contact group on Donbass, and a subgroup on security issues began work. The contact group will have a videoconference on Wednesday.The LPR and the DPR obtained from Kiev the extension of the bank cards of Donbass pensioners»No progress has been made on the issue of paying pensions, including the most acute problem — paying pensions to low-mobility pensioners — remains unresolved,» Kovshar said in a statement following the meeting of the economic subgroup, provided journalists. In November 2014, Petro Poroshenko, who was then president of Ukraine, signed a document called the «decree on economic blockade»: state institutions, banks and even prisons were withdrawn from the territory of Donbass, which was not controlled by the Ukrainian security forces. Kiev stopped paying pensions and salaries to public sector workers even earlier, from mid-summer 2014, to residents of the region. Since April 2015, the authorities of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR began to independently pay pensions to residents, and since May, salaries to state employees. The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that Kiev sent half of the entire personnel of the armed forces of Ukraine to Donbass. Moscow expressed concern about the transfer of military equipment from NATO countries to the Russian borders and the increase in the number of Western instructors in the Donbass. Western countries continue to provide military support to Ukraine, including by supplying weapons that are used in the Donbass. No progress has been made on the issue of paying pensions, including the most acute problem — paying pensions to pensioners with limited mobility — and remains unresolved. payments to pensioners in the Donbass, said in the LPR
