MOSCOW, February 16. /TASS/. The Russian Ministry of Economic Development has supported the initiative of members of the State Duma (lower house of parliament) who proposed to increase the population beyond the Urals region by means of Ukrainian refugees, Russia’s Izvestia daily wrote on Tuesday.

The ministry noted that more than 50,000 jobs would be created in Russia’s Far East until 2020, which could be taken by Ukrainians. According to Izvestia, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development has already informed the Federal Migration Service about its stance to further address the issue.

"The list of priority settlement areas includes the Republic of Buryatia, Trans-Baikal territory, Kamchatka territory, Primorye Maritime territory, Khabarovsk territory, the Amur region, the Irkutsk region, the Magadan region, the Sakhalin region and the Jewish Autonomous Region," the ministry told Izvestia.

The Federal Migration Service believes though that there is no need to develop such a program, as the problem is solved through the existing state-run program to render assistance to the voluntary resettlement of compatriots living abroad to Russia.

"Under the regional resettlement programs, compatriots are received by 59 Russian territorial entities, including 9 in the Siberian Federal District (the republics of Buryatia and Khakassia, Altai, Trans-Baikal and Krasnoyarsk territories, the Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk and Omsk regions) and 7 in the Far Eastern Federal District (Kamchatka, Maritime and Khabarovsk territories, the Amur, Magadan and Sakhalin regions and the Jewish Autonomous Region)," the agency’s press service said.

According to the Federal Migration Service, about 70,000 people have come to Siberia and the Far East over the past two years, more than 29,000 of them from Ukraine. All in all, more than 150,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Russia since 2014.

The initiative to develop a federal program for the voluntary resettlement of people who had to leave Ukraine to Siberia and the Far East has been put forward by a group of lawmakers from the Russian Communist Party led by Sergey Obukhov.