On November 27, 2025, public organizations Veteran Hub, Pryntsyp, Legal Hundred (Yurydychna Sotnya), and Space of Opportunities (Prostir Mozhlyvostey) presented concepts for state policy regarding veterans and their families. These materials serve as guides to the needs and pathways of the warriors and their loved ones, and propose a framework for building a dignified system of state support.
The organizations updated and deepened the Concept of State Policy for Veterans, which serves as the foundation of the Veteran Policy Strategy until 2030, as approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (CMU). The second concept—concerning their families—was created from scratch. They also developed recommendations for regional policy and a targeted support model.
The preparation of the documents involved public associations, experts in various areas of well-being, state institutions, as well as representatives of the policy's target audience — veterans and the families of warriors. The organizing authors are grateful for their willingness to share their experiences and needs.
We share the main principles from the concepts and the presentation that we recommend the state should consider:
- Veteran is a status granted from the first day of combat experience.
- Recognition and support of warriors and their families is the foundation of the state's defense capabilities.
“Our meeting today shows that we, as a nation, finally have enough freedom to recognize the contribution of the warriors and the experience of their loved ones. Everything we do or do not do will be exclusively our responsibility,” said Masi Nayyem, a veteran, co-founder of the Human rights center for servicemen ‘Pryntsyp’.
- Support must stem from the experience of the warriors and their loved ones, and take into account needs in all areas of well-being.
- The primary support for veterans should be concentrated on the recovery period—that is, during the first three years after completing service. Further support depends on current needs.
“We face the responsibility of choosing what the Ukrainian policy regarding the warriors and their families will be. And the time has come to make that decision. Today, we proposed a framework in which we are already working together with the Ministry of Veterans Affairs. We hope that this model will be supported at the national level, reflected in the Code that will soon be considered by the Verkhovna Rada, and become the basis for the policy that the state must implement systemically in supporting and recognizing our veterans and their families,” said Ivona Kostyna, Head of the Board of Veteran Hub.
- It is important to designate the family members of veterans as independent subjects and beneficiaries of the policy.
- The type of relationship between veterans and family members determines the specific support the state should provide.
“For veterans' families, we have five targeted support models based on the experiences they go through. In particular, for the families of veterans, veterans with disabilities, the fallen, those captured, and those missing in action. Each of these groups has its unique experience that needs to be studied, as well as its impact and the resulting needs. Only then do we move to solutions,” said Yulia Morii, Director of the Legal Hundred organization.
- It is critical to provide the necessary state support that is commensurate with the person's experience and needs.
- The implementation of veteran policy at the regional and local levels is a separate, system-wide policy, distinct from social policy.
“Veterans are returning and will continue to return home, to their families, to their communities. Consequently, the communities must be capable of implementing veteran policy locally. This refers to the management structure, the powers, the ability to provide services locally, and the training of specialists who will work with our target audience. The systemic nature of veteran policy must be not only at the level of government structures but also vertically: from the center to the communities,” said Oksana Koliada, Head of the Board of the NGO “Space of Opportunities”.
The Minister of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine also participated in the presentation:
“Veterans are not just another group of vulnerable categories. Veterans are the strongest among us. This is an advanced version of a Ukrainian. Veterans are people who, at the right moment, stood up to defend the state. And our main task, when they return to civilian life, is to create conditions in which they can find their pace again, gain access to services, build a career, and move forward. The goal of the state veteran policy is the capability of veterans,” said Natalia Kalmykova, Minister of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine.
Read more about the state policy concepts for veterans and their families on the website.
This event was made possible through the support of the Government of the United Kingdom, provided through the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) as part of the project “Concept of State Policy of Ukraine regarding Veterans and their Families.” The project is implemented by the public organizations Veteran Hub, Pryntsyp, Legal Hundred, and Space of Opportunities. The information in the material does not always reflect the views of the Government of the United Kingdom.
