“Representatives of 10 brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were trained as specialists in accompanying military personnel and their family members – this is a project implemented by the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”, — write: www.ukrinform.ua
The Deputy Minister of Defense, Brigadier General of Justice Serhiy Melnyk told the correspondent of Ukrinform about this.
According to his information, the training program lasted five days. It includes aspects of legal aid, the basics of psychological support and rehabilitation after injuries, as well as the specifics of working with the families of the dead and the missing.
Melnyk noted that the patronage services of the National Guard and the Armed Forces cooperate to exchange experience.
Escort services are created on the basis of existing units of civil-military cooperation. The servicemen who first passed the training course are already assigned to relevant positions or are candidates for these positions.
Officer of the Civil-Military Cooperation Department of the 92nd OShBr, Captain Liliya Diyanova, says that the most demanded in the unit is documentary and psychological support.
“I have been in office for three months. I believe that the expansion of our staff is very necessary and useful. There was a lack of certain knowledge in legal matters. The rehabilitation system is also being improved – you need to know everything about it. Therefore, interaction with other departments, communication with mentors expands our opportunities,” says Diyanova, who has completed the training.
According to her, before the expansion of the department, only two specialists were engaged in escorting in the brigade.
“The two people who worked, physically, simply could not provide work in this direction. And now we have a “hotline” to which servicemen or their relatives contact, and we help,” says the servicewoman.
Oleksandr Kutkov, head of the Central Department of Civil-Military Cooperation of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, notes that this is a change in the very approach of the state.
“A military serviceman should feel that the state cares about him and his family as a whole. The experience of patronage services, which were created at military units outside the state, is very positive. Their constant support contributes to the fact that more people, motivated people, are mobilized into these military units. That is, the constant support of a serviceman and his family affects the staffing, increases the combat and morale of servicemen,” says Kutkov.
Currently, the training is conducted according to the training course of the Kharkiv volunteer group Help army, which has been helping Ukrainian defenders since 2014.
“We want those structures that have been created in the country at many levels to finally unite, extend their hand inside the army and from the army – outside. We have been heard, together with the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff, we are implementing this concept. We have made a huge leap forward,” says Help army volunteer Olena Sherzhukova.
According to her, one of the urgent problems today is the escorting of servicemen who are being treated in civilian hospitals, so one of the topics of the training was the differences in escorting the wounded in rear facilities and front-line hospitals.
The volunteer stressed that each topic “is read by involved experts who have up-to-date information.”
“We are talking about structured assistance to servicemen with their social and household issues and structured assistance to the wounded,” Sherzhukova said.
Read also: New standards and technologies of dental care are being implemented in the ZSU As reported, on August 20, 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted the resolution “Some issues of implementing the activities of escort services for military personnel, non-commissioned and senior officers of the civil protection service, police officers and their family members.”
The document, which was developed by the Ministry of Defense together with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, provides for the creation of escort services in military administration bodies, military units, military training centers and institutions.
Their main tasks are: escorting the wounded (in particular, assistance in matters of referral and passage of military medical commissions and medical and social medical commissions); accompanying family members of the dead (deceased), missing persons and prisoners, providing them with assistance in the implementation of appropriate benefits and guarantees; assistance in drawing up the necessary documents.