How to get a payment for vaccination and where to spend it

Fully vaccinated Ukrainians can receive 1,000 hryvnias from the state, but a number of conditions must be met.

According to the Diia unified portal of public services, to receive the "vaccine" thousand, you must be an adult citizen with a full course of vaccination, have a "green" COVID certificate in the Diia app, and have issued a special ePidderzha bank card.

To receive the payment, you need to take seven steps:

• Step 1 Issue a special ePidderzhka card in the bank's app or offline branch.
• Step 2 Download the Diia app and log in.
• Step 3 Make sure you have a "green" COVID certificate.
• Step 4 Go to the Services section.
• Step 5 Find the eSupport service.
• Step 6 Select the ePayment card for payment.
• Step 7 Wait for the money to be credited from the Ministry of Economy.

You need to be a client of one of the partner banks or be ready to open a new account with them.

To receive the ePidderzhka card, you need to download the bank's application and apply for the ePidderzhka card online, or visit a physical branch and ask to issue the ePidderzhka card offline.

You can pay with a thousand hryvnias only for certain categories of goods:

Railway tickets within Ukraine;

• airline tickets within Ukraine;
• movie theaters
• theaters
• museums
• exhibition centers;
• concerts
• gyms;
• bookstores.

You can only pay for these services and goods. Payment will be accepted if you purchase services or goods from a business whose MSS code was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. Payment will not be accepted if the business is registered in another category. For example, you can buy books in a bookstore, but not in a grocery store or gas station.

The bbc.com notes that practice has shown that money can also be spent on related products sold by bookstores or cinemas, as these transactions use a "book" or other specialized mcc code.

On December 13, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that people aged 60+ would be able to spend their money on medicines. According to Mr. Fedorov, elderly Ukrainians will be able to spend a thousand hryvnias in pharmacies starting in the second half of January. Medicines will be available online and offline.

The money can only be spent on Ukrainian businesses. From the moment you request the money, you have four months to spend the thousand hryvnias.

Ukrainians who do not have the Diia app or bank cards will be able to receive 1,000 hryvnias from the second quarter or second half of 2022, said Rostyslav Shurma, deputy head of the Presidential Office.

"For those people who will not be able to receive funds digitally either due to the lack of the Diia app, or due to the lack of digital banking, or due to the lack of plastic cards, a mechanism for receiving these funds will be proposed in the second quarter or second half of the year (2022 - Ed.)," he said.

Ігор Льов