KIEV, November 3 - More than a thousand members of the Union of Afghan war veterans have blockaded the building of the Ukrainian Cabinet on Thursday.
The pickets are demanding to revise " inhuman" meager pensions for the veterans of the Afghan war.
Two days ago more than 500 veterans of the Afghan war held a demonstration outside the building of the regional administration in Donetsk, demanding to earmark funds in the 2006 draft budget for social benefits to veterans of the Afghan war.
Earlier, Afghan war veterans held numerous pickets, including a picket in Lvov held on January 19, 2005, a protest act in Kiev on May 31, when the protesters adopted an address to the Ukrainian president, demanding the resignation of the defense minister for non-compliance with the housing program for the veterans. The protesters declared then that the law on social benefits to Afghan war veterans "remained on paper only."
Around 130,000 Ukrainians have been to the Afghan war. Including 3,290 killed, 70 reported missing. At total of 4,687 out of 8,000 Ukrainian servicemen wounded in Afghanistan returned from Afghanistan disabled.
At present, there are 1,800 Afghan war veterans in the Ukrainian regular army.
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