Azarov orders probe into court rulings on compensation of social payments to Chornobyl cleanup workers

Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said that court decisions assigning large compensations to Chornobyl cleanup participants for debts on social benefits and pensions should be carefully studied.

"What should we do with these court rulings? Firstly, we should seriously and carefully analyze them," the prime minister said during the government meeting in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Azarov noted that the government should look into every individual case.

The premier ordered Vice Premier and Minister of Social Policy Sergiy Tigipko and the heads of regional state administrations to monitor this process.

Vice Premier Tigipko reported earlier that over the first seven months of this year, the courts ruled to pay the additional UAH 3.5 billion to Chornobyl cleanup workers and people born during the World War II as compensation for the overdue pensions and social benefits. Last year, they ruled that compensation should be paid to the tune of UAH 2 billion.

Meanwhile, the government proposed that a bill passed by the Verkhovna Rada in June amending the law on state budget 2011, according to which payments to Chornobyl cleanup veterans should be made in amounts established by the cabinet based on the available financial resources of the Pension Fund's budget. The relevant government resolution came into force on July 23.

This cut in social payments triggered a wave of protests across Ukraine.