The other day, President Zelensky announced an improvement in the “policy of heroes – policy of veterans.” After this, on Tuesday, February 6, relevant minister Yulia Laputina resigned. And the very next day, February 7, the Verkhovna Rada dismissed her by a constitutional majority.
Veterans Claims
“With all due respect to Madam Minister, this is a purely management issue. Ukraine needs strength, fresh energy and sufficient leadership in every area,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an evening address on February 5.
Yulia Laputina is the second female general in the history of independent Ukraine. She took charge of the Department of Veterans Affairs in December 2020. And for more than three years it has shown frankly weak results - the stakeholders surveyed by Apostrophe agree. And there has been talk about the resignation of the Minister of Veterans Affairs for a long time. Moreover.
“The main complaint is that Madam Minister completely isolated herself from veterans and their families, creating her own world in which she pretended to be involved in veterans’ politics,” says a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Veterans, co-founder of the NGO “Volunteers” in a commentary to Apostrophe “Anastasia Rymar, take any direction: rehabilitation, psychological support, social policy - nothing was done regarding veterans and their families and the issues took a very long time to resolve.”
Often the issue could be resolved with relatively little effort, it just required desire.
“I can give an example on the issue of families of deceased volunteers. People who were not registered in the first months of the war, in case of death or injury, the situation with them was resolved for a very long time. The law was not adopted for a year, the minister did not help in the process, and for a long time they could not pass a resolution in the Cabinet of Ministers. Now there are questions about equalization of payments and pensions. This is indeed technically not so difficult to solve if the minister were actively involved in this. Unfortunately, we didn’t see this,” adds Anastasia Rymar.
There were also problems in communication between the veteran community and the ministry - it was not clear what Minister Laputina was doing.
“As it turned out, being a woman and a general is not enough. You also need to be a good manager and be able to promote issues that are important. I personally have not seen any work with veterans or rehabilitation. Therefore, there is only one complaint: neither in the public sphere nor anywhere was it clear what they were doing for veterans,” Nikolai Melnik, senior lieutenant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, holder of the Order of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, emphasizes in a commentary to Apostrophe.
Problems at the institutional level
The relevant committee supported the dismissal of Yulia Laputina unanimously. There were also enough “for” votes in the plenary hall – 302. This, by today’s standards, is a lot.
“I personally respect her. This is a combat general, a woman who has had enough participation in hostilities and for this honor and praise should be given to her. But as a manager of this level, she, unfortunately, could not cope with the position of minister. These include contacts, connections with people’s deputies, with the committee,” people’s deputy, first deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Social Policy and Protection of Veterans’ Rights, member of the Batkivshchyna faction, Mikhail Tsymbalyuk, tells Apostrophe.
The ministry has failed to create an effective team. According to Apostrophe, about 30% of positions are currently vacant. And another characteristic indicator of effectiveness is the regular inability to use the funds allocated by the Ministry of Veterans.
“There are such failed things as providing housing - 2 years ago the funds were not fully used. In general, there is never enough money, but several billion have been allocated to create assistants for veterans, and these funds have not been used. And there are many more items where the ministry’s budget is used ineffectively,” notes Mikhail Tsymbalyuk.
New challenges
But the biggest problem is that the Department of Veterans Affairs has failed to become the center for the formation of veterans' policy. It is much broader and concerns other executive authorities. Many issues are at the intersection of different departments, and therefore must be resolved at the Cabinet level.
“This is part of the work of the Ministry of Health on rehabilitation, and the Ministry of Social Policy. Next is the Ministry of Economy, because it owns the employment centers. And in the end, the territorial community. Until now, it has not been possible to work out such a system so that a veteran is expected in the united community, so that there is a veteran’s space where they can meet him, tell him, show him adaptation,” explains Mikhail Tsymbalyuk.
People's deputies would like to ask Denis Shmygal about all this. However, he was absent from the session hall. Just like Minister Laputina himself was not there. So this is a task for the new minister, whoever it becomes.
“As for priorities in work. Firstly, this must be a person with combat experience, from the veteran community, a person who understands the problems of veterans and their families. Secondly, a person who knows how to communicate and who will not isolate himself from the veteran community, and a person who understands that the veteran community is a large and active part of society,” Anastasia Rymar is convinced.
In addition, it will be important for the new minister to defend the interests of veterans and their families in communications with other authorities.
“I would like this person not to be engaged in praising our political elite, but to directly solve the problems of the veteran community. I don’t envy the person who will take this position. Veterans themselves are specific in their communication and there are too many problems,” adds Nikolai Melnik.
A separate issue is the people who should implement the policy regarding veterans. The new minister will need, on the one hand, to clear the ministry of people who are ineffective and contradictory in their decisions. On the other hand, massive and rapid purges will not completely paralyze the system.
