As the intensity of fighting in the East decreased, the activities in developing the policies regarding IDPs, which were not too intense to begin with, decreased as well. In general, during the last two months, the government’s efforts were directed at introducing small changes into the decrees by the Cabinet of Ministers which are supposed regulate the issuing of certificates and the payment of social benefits, as well as the development of the programs which could become the basis for searching for the long-term solution for IDPs.

On March 4, the Decree 79 was adopted, which introduced changes into the Decree 509 by the Cabinet of Ministers of October 1, 2014, “On the order of issuing a certificate of including in the records a person who was displaced from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or the area of conducting the Anti-Terrorist Operation”. The question of more strict control of the place of residence of IDPs, and of cancelling the IDP certificates, followed by cancelling the social benefits for persons who do not live at the indicated address, were discussed at the meetings organized by the Ministry of Social Policy.

The changes which were introduced imply that the territorial departments of the State Migratory Service will receive the aggregated data on the list of the persons who were issued IDP certificates on a daily basis. The representatives of the State Migratory Service will have a single mandatory and monthly selective checks of the correspondence of the actual place of residence of the IDP to the address they indicated during the registration.

Such a position of the government contradicts the opinion of volunteers and activists, who tried to persuade the representatives of the relevant Ministry at meetings with them that this move will complicate the already difficult social and material situation of IDPs, and until all the IDPs are provided with accommodation according to the established norms and needs, the control of the place of residence must be postponed.

At the same time, the procedure of providing the targeted aid to IDPs was supplemented with some technical and a few substantial corrections, which will allow to extend the period of receiving such aid. The Decree 95 by the Cabinet of Ministers of March 11, 2015, regulates the question of using the UAH 3.3 billion reserved in the state budget for covering accommodation costs, including utility bills. Let us remind that in 2014, these needs were covered from the reserve funds .

The Decree 212 by the Cabinet of Ministers of March 31, 2015, regulates the question of prolonging these payments. Unless the situation changes in a way that influences the allocation of the financial aid (the necessary criteria for the aid eligibility are listed in Paragraph 2 of Decree 505), the aid provision can be extended for the next six-month period.

The Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine prepared the Complex state program of integration, social adaptation, protection and reintegration of the internally displaced persons for 2015-2016 and the Plan of Measures attached to it. It aims to solve the problems which arose in this area today, and to "relieve the social tension" by a set of decisions regarding the provision of social, physical, medical, psychophysical and material support of IDPs. The program sets the basic algorithm of solving the key problems of IDPs: displacement — provision of basic needs — beginning of the integration process. The mechanisms of cooperation with civil society were defined, and micro grant programs were organized for IDP support.

Unfortunately, the program does not indicate how these moves are supposed to fully solve the problems of IDPs (provide durable solutions). The program is designed from the perspective of "stimulating the return to the places of permanent residence", but does not imply full-fledged integration at new places. This is apparently caused by the terms of the program implementation, in 2015-16. Indicators of the program success are practically lacking; even the basic quantitative indicators are not provided, even though the sum of money required to implement the program, which is also not indicated for some reason, depends on these indicators. These drawbacks will have to be eliminated during the designing of the reform implementation plan.