Thanks to the joint response of human rights organizations and IDP Councils, pension payments to citizens whose pensions were unlawfully suspended in January 2026 will be resumed. At the same time, notifications confirming the non-receipt of pension payments from the Russian Federation must be submitted by April 1, 2026.
On Monday, February 2, a working meeting was held with the participation of representatives of the Ministry of Social Policy, Family and Unity of Ukraine, the Pension Fund of Ukraine, and human rights and humanitarian organizations: the Charity Foundation “Stabilization Support Services”, the ZMINA Human Rights Center, the NGO “Civic Holding ‘GROUP OF INFLUENCE’”, the NGO “Donbas SOS”, the NGO “CrimeaSOS”, the NGO “Understanding the Crisis”, the Charity Foundation “Right to Protection”, and UNHCR Ukraine. Participants discussed barriers and bureaucratic obstacles that prevented people from completing identification and submitting notifications of non-receipt of pensions from the Russian Federation by the December 31, 2025 deadline.
Following the meeting, officials supported the proposal to restore pension payments and extend the deadline for submitting such notifications until April 1, 2026. The relevant decision has been published on the government website.
This is the first important step toward restoring justice. Together with partners, we continue to develop and advocate for mechanisms to counter pension discrimination against internally displaced Ukrainians. In particular, we are working to remove barriers and bureaucratic procedures, as well as analyzing and challenging draft amendments that may restrict the right of IDPs and their heirs to receive pensions.
It is also important to conduct a broad information campaign among internally displaced persons to help them avoid potential risks. We therefore hope that IDP Councils will contribute to developing solutions, as well as disseminating information materials and explanations for displaced people. In the near future, we plan to organize a meeting to discuss this cooperation.
According to the Pension Fund of Ukraine, in January 2026 pension payments were suspended for more than 300,000 citizens — internally displaced persons who left temporarily occupied territories and now live in areas under government control, Ukrainian citizens residing in temporarily occupied territories, and Ukrainians currently living abroad. They were not informed in advance about the reasons for this decision, forcing many elderly people to personally contact Pension Fund service centers to restore their payments.
The main reason was the failure to submit, on time, a notification confirming the non-receipt of a pension from the Russian Federation, although Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 299 assigned the Pension Fund the responsibility to ensure confirmation of this information by December 31, 2025.
Human rights organizations had warned about the risk of mass suspension of payments as early as December. After documenting unlawful pension suspensions in January 2026, they prepared and submitted a joint appeal to the Ministry of Social Policy, calling for urgent action to resolve the situation. The appeal was supported by more than 60 civil society and charitable organizations, as well as IDP Councils from across Ukraine.
We thank all organizations and IDP Councils that supported the joint appeal to the Ministry of Social Policy and helped disseminate it as widely as possible.
This publication was made with the support of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency in Ukraine. The content of the publication is the sole responsibility of the Charitable Organization “Charity Foundation “Stabilization Support Services” and does not reflect the views of UNHCR.
