On February 29, Kyiv hosted an international conference "Creating an Effective Veterans' Policy in Ukraine: Using International Experience and Developing an Action Plan", which raised a wide range of issues related to social protection, medical care, psychological support and economic reintegration of war veterans and their families.
According to the initiator and organizer of the conference, head of the Free and Faithful NGO, volunteer soldier Vitaliy Gersak, Ukrainian and foreign experts, politicians, military, volunteers and representatives of NGOs have united on one communication platform to ensure that in the tenth year of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the third year of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an effective state policy for the protection of veterans finally emerges.
The conference was actively attended by reputable representatives of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Office of the Prosecutor General, the Office of the President of Ukraine, and members of the Ukrainian Parliament. The keynote speeches were delivered by such prominent American figures as Prince Taylor, a well-known veterans' advocate, former military officer, author of many veterans' adaptation programs, Bonnie Carroll, President and Founder of TAPS, Andre Hollis, CEO of Tiger International Advisors, former US Department of Defense official, Nathan White-Wilson, CEO of Gallant Knights Private Security Services, and others.
"This is the first time that such discussions involving recognized foreign experts have been held in Ukraine," the event organizers emphasize. - "The US veteran policy is considered one of the most developed and comprehensive in the world. Our veterans' organizations, especially in recent years, have been facing new challenges, so today, more than ever, there is an urgent need to create a common platform to discuss existing problems and develop appropriate solutions.
The conference participants were unanimous that studying the American experience and developing an action plan to adapt it to Ukrainian conditions would be an important step forward in reforming the state policy in the field of veterans' protection.
The next step will be to create an expert working group that will adapt the best international veteran policy experience to the Ukrainian context and formalize it into an action plan. This plan will be presented at an upcoming international conference in Washington, D.C., and then presented to members of the U.S. Congress and proposed for practical implementation by Ukrainian government officials and parliamentarians.