The initiative of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to carry out an indexation of pensions is nothing but a hollow promise, Leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) Petro Symonenko has said.

While commenting on the issue to journalists in Kryvy Rih, he said the standard of living should be taken into account when considering the level of income of pensioners. He said only the CPU's program foresees the unification of these two aspects.

"The government's responsibility for the growth of pensioners' incomes depends on the work he or she carried out before retirement. And we will also consider the standard of living and [the levels of] prices and tariffs," Symonenko said.

He added that the government's program deals only with pensioners that worked at budget-funded enterprises, while it does not mention those people who worked for private companies.

"Private owners don't pay EUR 1,000 to anyone. Thus, they won't have high pensions regardless of indexation. So, such initiatives are nothing but populism," the politician said.