The payment of pensions and social benefits to the residents of territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions under temporary occupation will not be resumed until the Ukrainian authorities regain control, Deputy Justice Minister Natalia Sevostianova has said.

"The position of the government is definitive: all payments will be settled as soon as Ukraine's control over the territories is restored. Anyway, all persons who leave these areas have a chance to receive payments in full," she said at a press conference last week.

Sevostianova said that if neither the treasury nor other financial institutions are able to send funds to those in occupied territory, or the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone, then payments will be completely impossible.

She also said that two treasury representatives who tried to bring money to these areas had been killed.

When commenting on the ruling of the Administrative Court of Appeals in Kyiv on the necessity of settling social payments in the territories of Luhansk and Donetsk regions which are under the control of the so called Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, she said that "I want to look at those judges who issue these rulings, they do not understand the situation there."

As reported, on April 2 MP Oleksandr Vilkul (Opposition Bloc) said that a court ruling which revoked the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to halt the payment of pensions and benefits to residents in the ATO zone took effect.

Subsequently, Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said that the Justice Ministry will challenge the ruling in the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine.