Vadym Chernysh was on 14 April 2016[5] appointed as the first Minister of Temporarily Occupied Territories and IDPs in the Groysman government.[5] On 20 April 2016 his ministry was created by merging the State Agency for restoration of Donbas (formerly part of Ministry of Regional Development) and the State Service for RussianannexedCrimea and Sevastopol (formerly under direct administration of the Cabinet of Ukraine).[1] Chernysh is the former head of the State Agency for restoration of Donbas.[6]
The ministry tries to "search for solutions and reintegration strategies" for Ukraine to regain control Crimea and parts of the historical region Donbas.[7] Ukraine lost control over Crimea, which was unilaterally annexed by Russia in March 2014.[8][9][nb 1] In the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, pro-Russian protests escalated into an armed separatist insurgency early in April 2014, when masked gunmen took control of several of the region's government buildings and towns.[8][11] This led to the creation of the self-proclaimedDonetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic.[8][12] Violence between the Ukrainian army and the forces of the two breakaway republics escalated into an armed conflict known as the Russo-Ukrainian War.[13][14] The war in Donbas led to 1.6 million people becoming internally displaced persons, according to the registry of the Ukrainian government.[15] The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported in March 2016 that 800,000 to 1 million of them lived within Ukrainian government controlled Ukraine.[15]
The Honcharuk Government (on 29 August 2019) merged the Ministry for Veterans Affairs into the ministry degrading the first to an agency as it previously existed.[3] On 23 January 2020 then Minister Oksana Koliada stated that the Ministry would likely be split up again into a separate Ministry for Veterans Affairs with the Ministry of Temporarily Occupied Territories and IDPs to be renamed "Ministry of Reintegration".[16] Indeed, on 4 March 2020 the new Shmyhal Government undid the merge of the two ministries.[4] It also renamed the ministry: Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories.[4]
On 19 November 2024 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the creation of a new (to be formed) ministry, that he then named Ministry of Unification of Ukrainians.[17] Zelenskyy claimed this new ministry was necessary for the "institutional strengthening of the policy towards Ukrainians abroad, towards our people from all waves ofmigration."[17]
On 3 December 2024 the government decided to rename the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories to its new name: the Ministry of National Unity of Ukraine.[2][18] According to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal this renamed ministry would conduct the task of the ministry that President Zelenskyy spoke of on 19 November 2024.[18] Early December 2024 the Ukrainian diaspora organizations European Congress of Ukrainians [uk] and Ukrainian World Congress had not been informed about the creation of this ministry that was aimed to facilitate them.[18]
List of ministers
Heads of predecessor government agencies of the ministry
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