Ukraine failing to use EU integration tools to protect people from occupied territories — analyst

Diana Deputat, legal analyst at the ZMINA Human Rights Center, stated this on Espreso TV.

"When we talk about our country's European integration progress, Ukraine is currently not devoting sufficient attention in this process to the issue of internally displaced people and people from temporarily occupied territories. Right now, it's insufficient. This is precisely the conclusion we reached within the framework of our analytical report and the interviews we conducted. We had a certain hypothesis that at this moment, the state of affairs regarding internal displacement and temporary occupation is not fully taken into account within the existing European integration instruments. In particular, we analyzed the Ukraine Facility - this is financial assistance provided to Ukraine from 2024 to 2027, amounting to over 50 billion. This specifically concerns the implementation of basic reforms, economic reforms, and reforms in key sectors. Analyzing the Ukraine Facility, for example, we saw that issues of internal displacement and temporary occupation are partially covered there. Specifically, there are provisions aimed at ensuring an environment for internally displaced persons, as well as possibilities for the return of internally displaced persons and those who currently have temporary protection within the European Union," Deputat explained.

According to the analyst, the European Commission began paying attention to protecting the rights of internally displaced persons and people in temporarily occupied territories starting in 2023. Already in 2025, the European Commission's report sent a clear signal indicating that the rights of internally displaced persons and residents of temporarily occupied territories must remain a priority for the state.

"We also analyzed the negotiating framework itself. In the negotiating framework, we see 35 chapters, but none of them is exclusively dedicated to the issue of internally displaced persons and the protection of rights of residents of temporarily occupied territories. That is, it's more of a general framework, a negotiating framework that is typical for us and for other candidate countries, such as North Macedonia, for example. If you look at other instruments, particularly the European Commission's annual reports on Ukraine within the enlargement package, we see that initially in 2023, the European Union partially paid attention to these issues, particularly more from the perspective of how Russian aggression affects the rights of these people. In 2024, we already see a certain shift when the European Union speaks about the need to adopt a national strategy in the field of human rights, the need to develop and adopt state policy on restoring governance in occupied territories and reintegrating the population. And in 2025, in the European Commission's report, we already see a clear signal indicating that, to quote, the rights of internally displaced persons and residents of temporarily occupied territories must remain a priority for the state. So in this case, we see an even greater focus specifically on protecting and ensuring the rights of these people. And in particular, the European Commission highlights a number of problems concerning citizenship legislation, problems concerning the provision of education in frontline territories, as well as problems concerning insufficient social security," she added.