Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories

The Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories (Ukrainian: Міністерство з питань реінтеграції тимчасово окупованих територій України, romanized: Ministerstvo z pytanʹ reintehratsiyi tymchasovo okupovanykh terytoriy Ukrayiny) is a government ministry in Ukraine officially established on 20 April 2016^[1] to manage occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea regions affected by the Russian military intervention of 2014. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ministry also managed the newly-occupied territories across Ukraine, especially Kherson and Zaporizhzhia which were annexed by Russia along with Donetsk and Luhansk.

Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories

Ukrainian: Міністерство з питань реінтеграції тимчасово окупованих територій України
Department overview
Formed	20 April 2016[1]
Jurisdiction	Government of Ukraine
Headquarters	Kyiv, Ukraine
Website	minre.gov.ua

The Honcharuk Government in August 2019 merged the Ministry for Veterans Affairs into the ministry.^[2] But its succeeding Shmyhal Government reversed this merger in March 2020.^[3]

History

Vadym Chernysh was on 14 April 2016 ^[4] appointed as the first Minister of Temporarily Occupied Territories and IDPs in the Groysman government.^[4] On 20 April 2016 his ministry was created by merging the State Agency for restoration of Donbas (formerly part of Ministry of Regional Development) and the State Service for Russian annexed Crimea and Sevastopol (formerly under direct administration of the Cabinet of Ukraine).^[1] Chernysh is the former head of the State Agency for restoration of Donbas.^[5]

The ministry tries to "search for solutions and reintegration strategies" for Ukraine to regain control Crimea and parts of the historical region Donbas.^[6] Ukraine lost control over Crimea, which was unilaterally annexed by Russia in March 2014.^{[7][8][nb 1]} In the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, pro-Russian protests escalated into an armed separatist insurgency early in April 2014, when masked gunmen took control of several of the region's government buildings and towns.^[7][10] This led to the creation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic.^[7][11] Violence between the Ukrainian army and the forces of the two breakaway republics escalated into an armed conflict known as the Russo-Ukrainian War.^[12][13] The war in Donbas led to 1.6 million people becoming internally displaced persons, according to the registry of the Ukrainian government.^[14] The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported in March 2016 that 800,000 to 1 million of them lived within Ukrainian government controlled Ukraine.^[14]

The Honcharuk Government (on 29 August 2019) merged the Ministry for Veterans Affairs into the ministry degrading the first to an agency as it previously existed.^[2] On 23 January 2020 then Minister Oksana Koliada stated that the Ministry would likely be split up again into a separate Ministry for Veterans Affairs with the Ministry of Temporarily Occupied Territories and IDPs to be renamed "Ministry of Reintegration".^[15] Indeed, on 4 March 2020 the new Shmyhal Government undid the merge of the two ministries.^[3]

List of ministers

Heads of predecessor government agencies of the ministry

State Agency for restoration of Donbas

Name of minister	Term of office
	Start	End
Andriy Nikolayenko	22 September 2014	14 October 2014
Vadym Chernysh	26 June 2015	20 April 2016

State Service on issues of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol city

Name of minister	Term of office
	Start	End
Aslan Ömer Kırımlı	14 May 2015	19 August 2015
Nariman Ustayev	20 August 2015	20 April 2016

List of ministers of the Ministry of Temporarily Occupied Territories [and IDPs]

Name of ministry	Name of minister	Term of office		Photo
		Start	End
Temporarily Occupied Territories and IDPs	Vadym Chernysh[4]	20 April 2016[5][nb 2]	29 August 2019[4]
Temporarily Occupied Territories, IDPs and veterans	Oksana Koliada	29 August 2019	4 March 2020
Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories	Oleksii Reznikov	4 March 2020[3]	3 November 2021[16]
	Iryna Vereshchuk	4 November 2021[17]	present

See also

• Temporarily occupied and uncontrolled territories of Ukraine
• Russian military intervention in Ukraine (2014–present)
• Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone (Ukraine)
• Russo-Ukrainian War
• Humanitarian situation during the war in Donbas

Notes

1. The status of the Crimea and of the city of Sevastopol is currently under dispute between Russia and Ukraine; Ukraine and the majority of the international community consider the Crimea to be an autonomous republic of Ukraine and Sevastopol to be one of Ukraine's cities with special status, while Russia, on the other hand, considers the Crimea to be a federal subject of Russia and Sevastopol to be one of Russia's three federal cities.^[7][9]
2. Chernysh was appointed the Minister on 14 April 2016,^[4] while the ministry was approved to be established only on 20 April 2016.^[5]

References

1. (in Ukrainian) The Cabinet decided to create the Ministry of temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons, Ukrayinska Pravda (20 April 2016)
2. New Cabinet formed in Ukraine The Rada appointed the new Cabinet: Avakov and Markarova remained (РАДА ПРИЗНАЧИЛА НОВИЙ КАБМІН: АВАКОВ І МАРКАРОВА ЛИШИЛИСЬ), Ukrayinska Pravda (29 August 2019)
3. "Ukraine's new Cabinet of Ministers".
4. New Cabinet formed in Ukraine, UNIAN (14 April 2016)
   Week’s balance: PM Groysman, Rada’s sabotage, and disappointing IMF forecast, UNIAN (18 April 2016)
5. (in Ukrainian) Cabinet of Ukraine approved creation of Temporarily Occupied Territories and IDPs. Radio Liberty. 20 April 2016
6. (in Ukrainian) Vadim Chernish, Minister of temporarily occupied territories and IDPs: "The State shall clearly outline the position on the occupied territories and the people who were there", Zerkalo Nedeli (15 April 2016)
7. Ukraine crisis timeline, BBC News
8. EU & Ukraine 17 April 2014 FACT SHEET Archived 14 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine, European External Action Service (17 April 2014)
9. Gutterman, Steve (18 March 2014). "Putin signs Crimea treaty, will not seize other Ukraine regions". Reuters.com. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
10. Masked gunmen tighten grip on eastern Ukraine, Reuters (30 April 2014)
11. Eighteen of thirty-four district election commissions in Donetsk and Luhansk regions captured – CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (22 May 2014)
12. Grytsenko, Oksana (12 April 2014). "Armed pro-Russian insurgents in Luhansk say they are ready for police raid". Kyiv Post.
13. Leonard, Peter (14 April 2014). "Ukraine to deploy troops to quash pro-Russian insurgency in the east". Yahoo News Canada. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 14 April 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
14. Over 3 mln people live in conflict zone in Ukraine's east – UN report, Interfax-Ukraine (3 March 2016)
15. (in Ukrainian) Two ministries will be in charge of Donbas: they will divide the Ministry of Veterans, Ukrayinska Pravda (23 January 2020)
16. Parliament sacks Deputy Prime Minister Reznikov, Ukrinform (3 November 2021)
17. "Vereshchuk appointed Ukraine's deputy prime minister". www.ukrinform.net. Retrieved 2021-12-02.

External links

• November 2016 interview with minister Vadym Chernysh by UNIAN