Jobs for Veterans in Ukraine: What stands in the way and how to overcome artificial barriers
24 July 2025 16:17
ANALYSIS FROM 
There are already 1.3 million registered veterans in Ukraine. And there are many of them who, after leaving the service, have already had experience in finding a job. Not always positive. What complicates the employment process and how it can be improved, "Komersant Ukrainian" found out.
After the end of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the number of veterans may increase to 6 million. Of course, many of them will return to their pre-war jobs after demobilization. But many will have to consider new employment options for objective and subjective reasons. And experience suggests that this will not always be easy.
Not all departments and companies are ready to open their doors wide enough for female and male veterans. The CHESNO movement has recently analyzed the number of employed veterans in 14 out of 19 Ukrainian ministries based on data from 14 of them. It turned out that only 3% of employees in various positions in the ministries have veteran status. The largest number of war veterans, combatants and people with war-related disabilities work in the Ministry of Defense – 100 out of 497 employees and in the Ministry of Veterans Affairs – 38 out of 214. However, there are also ministries with only 2-3 veterans working there.
By the way, the most desirable areas of employment for them are the civil service and local government. Veterans would also like to dedicate themselves to the military, work in security structures, and in the field of transportation and logistics. This is evidenced by the results of a survey conducted in April-May 2025 by the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, the Ukrainian Veterans Fund, and the robota.ua platform.
Barriers to employment
The study also helped to find out how many female and male veterans encountered obstacles to employment and what kind of obstacles. Anastasiia Selyaninova, Head of the Training and Analytical Department of the Ukrainian Veterans Fund, says.
“In our latest survey, 57 percent of female and male veterans surveyed said that they definitely or rather faced problems in the employment process, and only 27 percent said they did not experience anything like that. As for the problems themselves, they include the discrepancy between salaries and the needs or expectations of female and male veterans; problems with physical health and psycho-emotional state; and discrimination in employment. In fact, discrimination may be that certain stereotypes may stop employers from hiring female and male veterans,” explained Anastasia Selyaninova.
“The study also helped us to find out what kind of support veterans expect when looking for a job.
We asked the veterans themselves what kind of help they would like to receive, and the most popular option chosen by half of the respondents was retraining. The option of job quotas for veterans also received almost as much support. Another thing that could help in the employment process is to take into account military experience for work experience in the specialty. Veterans also have a need for additional education and employment support. We need programs for psychological support and integration of people with disabilities,” said Anastasia Selyaninova.
Legislative support
Surprisingly, the current legislative framework in Ukraine does not specifically regulate the employment of combatants. The state only regulates the situation when a soldier is disabled as a result of the war, in which case he or she is covered by the guarantees provided by law for people with disabilities. The draft law No. 13180 “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on Promoting the Employment of Combatants and Ensuring Their Economic Independence” is intended to fill this regulatory gap.
Among the proposed innovations, for example, is the introduction of a 5 percent quota for employers with more than 8 employees to hire combat veterans. And some MPs propose to introduce even a 10% quota for female and male veterans in government agencies, especially in tax, customs, and law enforcement.
It is also proposed to introduce, as written in the explanatory note to the draft law, a “positive mechanism to encourage employers” to hire combatants. This means some compensation for actual labor costs. It is also possible to introduce a “negative mechanism to incentivize employ ers” when hiring (here we are talking about fines).
It is important to note that the search for an optimal model of employment for female and male veterans is still ongoing. And judging by public comments, few MPs are ready to talk about the same punitive measures. The emphasis is on the introduction of a preferential system for businesses that hire veterans, tax incentives or an indirect mechanism of financial responsibility.
There is no question of punishment. But if you don’t hire veterans, you pay taxes in full. If you do, you get benefits. It’s fair,” explains Olena Shulyak, chairwoman of the Parliamentary Committee on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning, explaining the mechanisms for incentivizing employers.
At the same time, the parliament is mindful that, for example, the idea of quotas has support in society. And it remains a subject of discussion. Almost 50 percent of the participants in the aforementioned survey named the statutory quota for jobs for female and male veterans as an important mechanism of support in the employment process.
Taras Tarasenko , Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Social Policy and Protection of Veterans’ Rights, explains why coercive measures in employment are an ineffective option.
“As for the model of Draft Law No. 13180, it is quota and coercion. But this is a model that does not work. I consider coercion in the work of anyone to be ineffective. And Ukraine as a state has already gone through this moment of coercion in the issue of employment of persons with disabilities, which we inherited from the times of the Ukrainian SSR, and as a result, we got the trade in labor records of persons with disabilities, not real employment. We have already adopted a relevant law on changing approaches to the employment of people with disabilities, reduced the burden on business and proposed models in which the state stimulates real care for people with disabilities by employing them on the principles of barrier-free access,” the parliamentarian notes.
MP Taras Tarasenko identifies two factors as significant obstacles to the employment of female and male veterans: low wages and the lack of public sector policies to help employees understand the stages of a person’s return from war and the changes in a person as a result of trauma and changes in values.
Positive practices
Employment of veterans is a process of restructuring the entire team in their attitude towards veterans, tolerance of each other, and reducing the gap of alienation so that the workforce becomes a new monolith of veterans and civilians. The priority should be to stimulate development.
It is better to create opportunities for business development and job creation, and to finance the arrangement of places for veterans who have been injured at the expense of the state. This is already being done. Businesses are already implementing employment policies and care for their defenders on their own, as many people have been mobilized and businesses want these employees to return to them. I am grateful to the Ministry of Veterans of Ukraine and businesses that have created the analytical guide “Veteran Initiatives” which shows how large employers cope with the employment of veterans and what challenges they face. “I personally support the adoption of positive practices and their implementation on a larger scale, including in the public sector,” emphasized Taras Tarasenko.
The Veterans’ Initiatives study was created by Top Lead with the support of the Ministry of Veterans and the Ukrainian Veterans Fund. It presents the veteran initiatives of the largest companies in Ukraine and optimistically shows that 97% of companies have veterans on staff, 83% of companies support veteran employees, 72% of companies have psycho-emotional support programs, and 85% of companies support veterans outside the state.
Author – Serhiy Vasylevych
Читайте нас у Telegram: головні новини коротко
