The Ministry of Veterans announced the number of combatants in Ukraine since 2014
3 June 2024 14:41
ЕКСКЛЮЗИВ
The Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs provided the exact number of combatants in Ukraine at "Komersant Ukrainian" request. As of 31 May this year, the special Unified State Register of Veterans contains information about 694,227 people who have been granted combatant status since 2014 and 228,976 people who have been granted combatant status since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
As explained by the Ministry, the information in the Unified State Register of Veterans comes from various commissions set up by the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the National Police, the National Guard, the Security Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the State Border Guard Service, the State Special Transport Service, the Office of the Prosecutor General, the State Protection Department, the State Special Communications Service, the State Emergency Service, and the SFS.
At the same time, the Ministry of Veterans is not aware of the number of applications pending for combat participant status and the number of people who have been denied combat participant status because they are not informed about it by the departmental commission for reviewing materials on recognition as combatants.
In Ukraine, all military personnel who took part in hostilities, in particular after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, are entitled to receive combatant status and benefits guaranteed by Ukraine, including
- free receipt of medicines and medical devices with prescriptions;
- priority free dental prosthetics (except for prosthetics made of precious metals);
- free sanatorium treatment or compensation for the cost of independent sanatorium treatment;
- 75% discount on utilities or rent;
- 75% discount on the cost of fuel, including liquid fuel, within the limits of the norms established for sale to the public;
- free travel by public transport;
- annual medical examination and dispensary with the involvement of specialists;
- priority service in healthcare facilities, pharmacies and priority hospitalisation;
- payment of temporary disability benefits in the amount of 100% of the average salary regardless of length of service;
- use of regular annual leave at a convenient time, as well as additional unpaid leave for up to two weeks per year;
- priority provision of living space for persons in need of better living conditions and priority allocation of land plots for individual housing construction, gardening and horticulture, priority repair of residential houses and apartments of these persons and provision of fuel;
- Combatants who were wounded, contused or maimed during the war are provided with living space within two years from the date of registration in the housing register;
- obtaining a loan for the construction, reconstruction or overhaul of residential buildings, connecting them to engineering networks and communications, as well as a loan for the construction or purchase of summer cottages and landscaping of garden plots with repayment within 10 years starting from the fifth year after the completion of construction;
- priority right to join housing co-operatives, co-operatives for the construction and operation of collective garages, car parks and their maintenance, gardening associations, and to purchase materials for individual construction and garden houses;
- free travel once every two years (round trip) by rail, water, air or intercity road transport, regardless of the availability of railway connections;
- payment of taxes, fees, duties and other payments to the budget in accordance with tax and customs legislation;
- priority service by enterprises, institutions and organisations of consumer services, catering, housing and communal services, and intercity transport;
- combatants are also provided with pensions or monthly lifetime allowance or state social assistance paid instead of a pension, increased by 25% of the subsistence minimum for persons who have lost their ability to work.
