The financial assistance intended for Ukrainian refugees hosted by Moldova is paid with delay, said the chairman of the Coalition for Unity and Wellbeing (CUB) Igor Munteanu. He said that together with a group of Ukrainian deputies, he visited a refugee placement center and was disappointed to see how some of the citizens of Ukraine are treated in Moldova. For his part, MP Vasile Bolea said that too much attention is devoted to the Ukrainians in the public sphere, while the situation of the Moldovans with small incomes is not discussed enough, IPN reports.

The CUB leader said that he recently visited a placement center that hosts Ukrainian refugees and saw that the conditions there are not at all as the Moldovan authorities depict them. The living conditions there are bad and the Ukrainian refugees do not get in time the money announced earlier, even if the funds are not allocated from the state budget.

“Personally, I visited one of the placement centers intended for Ukrainian refugees together with members of the Ukrainian Rada. Those people haven’t had hot water for about a month and a half, didn’t have a fridge on their store. Beyond the boasting tone of the authorities, there are real problems to which no one devotes attention. The people from those placement centers complained that they haven’t received the promised money from international organizations for two months. I considered the situation of the Ukrainian refugees was good as the authorities assured us that this is so. The delays in paying the money to which they are entitled cannot be justified as the money was allocated. We must not boast we are generous and do our best to help if there are such cases,” Igor Munteanu stated in the program “Shadow Cabinet” on JurnalTV channel.

For his part, unaffiliated MP Vasile Bolea said the Moldovan authorities should focus on the improvement of the living conditions of the own citizens.

“We should not ignore another subject. In our country, we have own citizens whose situation is more serious than that of Ukrainian refugees. We forget about our citizens when we take care of these refugees we came to the Republic of Moldova and for whom international institutions pay. We say that the Ukrainians are dejected, but forget that our citizens are also despondent,” stated Vasile Bolea.

At present, the Ukrainian refugees in Moldova monthly benefit from 2,200 lei (about €100) in financial support for each family member. The support is provided by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).