On August 19, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a law providing for additional guarantees for service members, veterans, and those released from captivity during treatment, rehabilitation, and prosthetics. This was reported by UNN.
Details
A total of 308 lawmakers voted in favor of the relevant Draft Law No. 13704-d. The document comprehensively changes the approach to the treatment, rehabilitation, financial support, and prosthetics of service members, war veterans, and prisoners of war released from captivity. It concerns a number of guarantees that should apply at different stages of a defender’s recovery after an injury or severe trauma.
Draft Law No. 13704-d covers practically the entire path of a wounded service member after sustaining an injury: treatment, preservation of financial support, rehabilitation, undergoing a military medical commission, prosthetics, and subsequent social support. At the same time, some provisions of the document will not take effect automatically immediately after it is signed: the government still has to develop procedures for rehabilitation and prosthetics, work out a mechanism for monitoring their quality, create a program to prevent amputations, and address the issue of additional financial support for severely wounded defenders.
Payments during treatment, rehabilitation, and prosthetics: what Law No. 13704-d changes for service members
Draft Law No. 13704-d was registered in parliament back on November 14, 2025, as a revised version of legislative initiatives concerning the medical support of defenders.
On December 3, 2025, the Verkhovna Rada adopted it as a basis. After amendments were prepared, the parliamentary Committee on Social Policy and Protection of Veterans’ Rights recommended on August 10, 2026, that parliament adopt the document in the second reading and as a whole.
The Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, the Ministry of Defense, and the Office of the Military Ombudsman were also involved in its preparation.
Financial support during treatment
One of the main provisions concerns payments to service members who, due to injuries or their health condition, undergo treatment or rehabilitation for an extended period. The law provides for the full preservation of all types of financial support for the duration of such treatment and recovery.
This guarantee will also apply when a service member is sent for treatment to a medical facility outside Ukraine. In other words, simply being treated at a foreign clinic should not result in the loss of the financial support due to the service member. This is especially important for people with severe injuries, whose treatment may last for months and require several stages of surgery and recovery.
During the preparation of the document for the second reading, special consideration was given to service members whose treatment due to severe injuries lasts more than 12 months, as well as military personnel who require prolonged treatment after returning from Russian captivity. These cases were discussed by representatives of the parliamentary committee, the Ministry of Defense, the Office of the President, and the Office of the Military Ombudsman in early August.
Treatment and rehabilitation at the state’s expense
The document also establishes the principle of equal access to medical and rehabilitation assistance. According to information from the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada, the treatment and rehabilitation of service members, veterans, and those released from captivity, as well as foreigners and stateless persons serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, should be provided on equal terms and in full at the expense of the state budget.
Lawmakers are seeking to enshrine the principle that the scope of necessary assistance is determined primarily by a person’s medical needs, rather than by their place of treatment or other organizational circumstances.
At the same time, rehabilitation should not be limited only to a short period after surgery or the completion of inpatient treatment. If the service member’s condition requires it, rehabilitation may continue for a lengthy period. This applies, in particular, to severe musculoskeletal injuries, amputations, and other damage after which the restoration of functions may require prolonged recovery.
Improved nutrition for wounded service members undergoing rehabilitation
The bill adopted by lawmakers on August 19 also addresses the provision of food for defenders during treatment and rehabilitation.
The document provides for supplying them with improved nutrition in healthcare facilities and rehabilitation institutions, regardless of the ownership structure or subordination of the institution. The relevant guarantee is to be tied to the patient's status and needs. After all, for wounded people undergoing lengthy postoperative treatment or intensive rehabilitation, proper nutrition is recovery work just as demanding as physiotherapy, medication, and working with a psychotherapist.
How the work of military medical commissions (MMCs) will change
The bill also affects the work of military medical commissions. In particular, it provides for the possibility of challenging in court the MMC rulings determining a person's degree of fitness for military service.
This provision creates an additional legal mechanism of protection for service members who disagree with the commission's conclusion regarding their health and ability to continue serving. When an MMC conclusion can directly affect a person's further service, treatment, and social guarantees, the possibility of fully challenging such a decision is of fundamental importance.
The right to freely choose a prosthetist
The authors of the document devoted one of its largest sections to prosthetics and orthotics.
Service members who have sustained wounds or injuries as a result of hostilities or captivity, as well as persons with war-related disabilities, should not be restricted in their choice of a prosthetist or of an enterprise or institution providing prosthetics or orthotics services. Such a choice should be made in accordance with medical prescriptions.
In practice, this provision is intended to give the wounded person greater influence over where and from whom they receive a prosthesis. A person will be able to choose a specialist or prosthetics provider based on their own needs, doctors' recommendations, the type of amputation, and the required design, without being "tied" to a single provider through administrative procedures.
Quality control of prosthetics
At the same time, freedom to choose a prosthetist should be accompanied by enhanced oversight of the quality of the services themselves. The document provides for instructing the Cabinet of Ministers to consider this issue and establish a permanent working body to monitor the quality of prosthetics. Representatives of executive authorities, public organizations of people with disabilities, and the expert community are proposed to be involved in its work.
Separately, within three months after the law is signed by Head of State Volodymyr Zelenskyy, published in the parliament's official print publication, and enters into force, the government is to submit legislative proposals to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine regarding the rehabilitation and prosthetics procedure.
The "Save the Limb" program
Another area set out in the draft law, which lawmakers supported today, concerns efforts to reduce the number of cases in which a severe injury ends in amputation. Therefore, the Cabinet of Ministers is being asked to develop and approve the State Targeted Program "Save the Limb" for 2026–2030. It is to focus on preventing amputations and restoring limb function, with the program's funding to come from the state budget.
The idea is for state policy not to be limited solely to providing a prosthesis after an amputation has already occurred. It also concerns the development of medical technologies, surgical procedures, and rehabilitation approaches that, where medically possible, will make it possible to preserve an injured limb or restore its functionality as fully as possible.
Lifetime support may be introduced for severely wounded service members
As a separate provision, the Cabinet of Ministers is being asked to consider the possibility of introducing lifetime financial support for some service members suffering the most severe consequences of combat injuries. An important detail is that the law does not establish such a payment automatically, but instructs the government to examine the possibility of introducing it.
This concerns defenders who, as a result of blast injuries sustained during direct participation in hostilities, suffered irreversible loss of their upper or lower limbs or parts thereof, another organ, or complete permanent loss of an organ’s function, and consequently received a Group I disability status.
As a benchmark for the amount of such support, they propose using the average salary in Ukraine for the previous year. However, the specific mechanism, eligibility conditions, and payment procedure will still require a separate decision.
Reminder
Earlier, we wrote that the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine is developing systematic support for service members who are members of the trade union movement—from one-time payments of 6,500 hryvnias after injury, rehabilitation and prosthetics programs, and subsequent employment assistance to organizing vacations for the children of defenders.