After the invasion of the Russian Federation, Ukrainians actively 'settle' in the Chernobyl zone: reason.

The problem of people settling in the Chernobyl exclusion zone began with the start of the war in Ukraine. This was done to receive monthly payments from the state, and now 15 billion hryvnias are being spent on this annually. This was reported by the Deputy Minister of Social Policy, Daryna Marchak, for Forbes Ukraine.

Since 2022, courts have massively appointed payments to people who were not affected by the Chernobyl disaster or who were not liquidators but are registered in the radiation contamination zone. This has led to a sharp increase in the number of recipients of payments - from 10,000 people to 135.4 thousand.

Deputy Minister of Social Policy Daryna Marchak noted that this situation leads to significant financial expenditures - about 15 billion hryvnias annually.

To address this issue, a provision has been included in the draft budget for 2025 that limits payments only to those who lived in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant zone from 1986 to 1993.

Moreover, law enforcement agencies have established that some people intentionally register in the Chernobyl zone in uninhabitable houses, often with dozens of people in one apartment.

New efforts to develop the Chernobyl zone

The 'Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant' enterprise reported receiving the first components for the construction of a photovoltaic power plant in the area of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. This became possible thanks to international humanitarian aid.

Additionally, the main provisions of the Chernobyl zone development strategy until 2032, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, were presented in the Verkhovna Rada. The government plans to transform the 'exclusion zone' into a 'restoration zone' to turn this place into a center of innovation and ecological leadership, reports UkrInform.