Ukraine dumps servicemen who left Crimea after referendum

Hundreds of Ukrainian servicemen, who decided to leave the Crimea and go to serve in Ukraine, found themselves in a difficult situation. Instead of the promised free housing, officers, contractors and their families were accommodated in a sanatorium near Odessa. Now the military men have been stripped of allowances.

Four dozen kids and their parents will hardly be able to satisfy their appetite fully today, even though it appears that it is these families that the Kiev authorities need to maintain in the first place. Officers and contractual soldiers - professional soldiers, who had served in the Crimea and decided to stay in Ukraine - were promised new housing from the state after the referendum on the status of the peninsula. Instead, the men and their families were abandoned by the state, vesti.ru reports.

"My daughter tells me, mommy, I want to eat. How do I explain to her that we have nothing to eat today?" Julia Kovalchuk, the wife of a soldier of the Ukrainian army says.

At the end of March, the vast majority of Crimean units swore allegiance to Russia. Those, who decided to stay with Ukraine, were enough to create a problem for Kiev. Nearly six hundred people were accommodated in "Kuyalnik" sanatorium in Odessa. All those people were told that they would soon move to their new homes. Three and a half months have passed, but the military men and their families still reside in the sanatorium.

All this time, "Kuyalnik" was maintaining the military men at its own expense. Currently, Kiev's debt before the sanatorium makes up more than seven million hryvnia. Officials say that there were nine million allocated from the budget. However, as it usually happens, the money has not reached the destination. Starting from today, food vouchers do not work. Cooking food in the rooms is not allowed.

"How can we make something to eat, if we can not even boil some water?" an employee of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Tatyana Pichugina said. "First, it is electricity, for which the sanatorium does not intend to pay. Secondly, there is a danger of fire."

Arranging kids in kindergartens, where they could eat, is a big problem as well. Most families simply have nowhere to go; they can not afford renting a flat either.

Representatives at the Ukrainian Defense Ministry say that there is a very difficult situation in the country. They promise to solve the problem in one month.