On 3 July, I visited Azovstal Iron and Steel Works and met with the team of the enterprise's employees, including honoured labour veterans.

I believe that people who forged the labour glory of Mariupol’s metallurgical plants deserve having decent living standards. More than 30,000 labour veterans of Mariupol will receive a veteran's social card, a targeted social support from our management company Metinvest. 

The program will start working from 23 July, regardless of the election results. It includes healthcare benefits, discounts for medicines and food in retail chains, discounts for household services, as well as one-time financial aid.

Previous authorities cancelled all social benefits, having brought them down to the lowest level in all the years of independence. They even came to the point that they began to levy taxes on pensions – small incomes of pensioners honestly earned by their hard work. We consider it to be our duty to help the honoured metallurgists, labour champions, and take an example from them.