Disability as a result of war injury

Dmytro Vlashchenko, the lawyer, adds: " Unfortunately, only few of these people know that they have a right to apply for disability benefits".

 More and more Ukrainians are being increasingly injured by RUSSIAN bombs and missiles. Some of our citizens are becoming unable to work and need a financial support. 

However, not everyone can be recognized as a disabled person and get a Disability Certificate. According to the law, a Disability Certificate can get only a person who was injured in the battle area. So how do you get this status? Our correspondents explored this topic. 

It happened on March 2, 2022. Lyudmyla Potabryk and Nina Zhuk were working in a pharmacy. There was half an hour left till the end of working hours when a rocket hit Kharkiv. 

Nina Zhuk, a resident of Kharkiv: "After the explosion, I came to consciousness for a second, I didn't understand what happened and I could not understand why my face was like in a water. I thought, where did it come from? And it turned out that it was not water, but my blood. The whole my face was in blood". 

Lyudmyla Potabryk, a resident of Kharkiv: "The second group of disability,70% of my disability is due to a serious injury of my head".

 19-year-old Diana, a student, got the explosive "gift" from RUSSIAN armed forces at her apartment on the 9th floor. Missile got directly to her apartment and exploded. Coma, intensive care, surgery, rehabilitation. 

Diana Zubchenko, a resident of Kharkiv: «Six months! From March 6, when I was brought in the hospital, then rehabilitation, then a surgical intervention, a plate, then the eye was completely removed. I had a shrapnel in my left eye»!

 Natalia Miroshnyk is 21. She got a mine-blast injury in the occupied territory. Natalia Miroshnyk, a resident of Kharkiv: «Everything is fine. But the only thing was that my phone was stolen by RUSSIAN armed forces and then they put it under the stretcher and said that my phone fell by itself».

 Natalia received first aid from enemy soldiers. The girl's mother says that she threw herself in front of tanks and Ural tanks to stop anyone in order to get her daughter to the hospital. The girl's native village, Ruski Tyshky, was under occupation at the time, and the Russians completely blocked the exits to Kharkiv. 

Oksana Miroshnyk, a resident of Kharkiv: “They brought us to a hospital in Lipetsk, where they met us and started to provide the first aid, though only stitching something up and giving us an IV fluid giving set”. They said: "We will take you to Belgorod". We had no choice, I had to save my child”! 

Natalia Ushakova, a psychologist and art therapy practitioner, says: "Every physiological injury is a psychological injury multiplied by ten". As a part of a social protection project, she helps civilians who have gone through this to accept a new appearance, and most importantly, to overcome the horror of facing the "Russian world." 

Natalia Ushakova, a psychologist: “At the state level, there must be a structure, there must be a primary rehabilitation, there must be a secondary rehabilitation, physical + psychological, which should be thought out to the smallest details, because each person is a universe. And it is not easy to set it up”! 

"Almost everyone who was harmed due to RUSSIAN aggressive invasion needs a long-term and expensive treatment. In addition, injuries are often accompanied by disability",- says Olga Ridna, the Head of a Charity Foundation that helps such people. 

Olga Ridna, the Head of the Charity Foundation, explains: «For some reason, people who have been injured are still not identified as a separate vulnerable category. Until they have registered a disability, unfortunately, they have no support, no pension, no payments, and therefore have to be treated and rehabilitated at their own expense”! 

Dmytro Vlashchenko, a lawyer, adds: "Few of these people know that they have a right to apply for disability benefits and obtain a Disability Certificate. This is not only an extension of benefits, but also an opportunity to claim compensation from the TERRORIST STATE in the future".

 Dmytro Vlashchenko, a lawyer of the charitable foundation: «There are some people who are denied in a disabled status. Why? Because, for example, a person was injured as a result of a shot, explosion, or mine-blasting activity. They may be given a certificate, but if a person is hit, for example, by a slab from a house that was hit by a rocket, they are not wounded, they are injured». In addition, according to the law, only a person who was injured in the battle area can get a disability status due to a war injury. However, Russian missiles and drones are flying not only to Kharkiv or Kherson, but also to Dnipro and Lviv, and other Ukrainian cities and villages. That is why lawyers and volunteers are preparing proposals to change the legislation. 

Olga Ridna, the Head of the Charity Foundation, comments: “At the state level, we want to initiate material support, cash payments and other benefits both for internally displaced persons and other categories, so that this category of wounded, who are tens of thousands across Ukraine, receive material payments to cover their most basic needs”.

 Nina Zhuk, a resident of Kharkiv: “We make sure that we have something to be treated for, because the pharmacy won't give us medicines for free, you have to buy them”! The pharmacy where Lyudmyla and Nina were injured has been rebuilt and is now open again. But it is impossible to recover the human body so fast. 

Nina still hasn't dared to go to her former place of work even for a minute.