On 3 June 2025, 550 participants came together, both in person and online to discuss the role and function of the Veterans' Support Specialist (VSS) in Ukraine’s evolving and fast-changing social support system for veterans. The expert session, which included members of the Parliament of Ukraine, representatives of national and local authorities, the veteran community and non-governmental organisations was organised by the Office of the Ombudsperson, with support of the Council of Europe project “Rights of Veterans and Personnel of the Armed Forces in Ukraine”. It was the first in a series of three strategic sessions and was titled “Veterans’ Support Specialist (VSS): Synergy of Social Work, Patronage Services, and Military Units.”
Some of the critical questions that were discussed included how well the VSS can identify veterans’ needs and what their core role should be—coordinator, case manager, or service provider. The impact of the mode of engagement of these specialists as sub-contracting or direct hire on their effectiveness was also in focus. The discussions also addressed the importance of ethical communication skills, and how to improve their qualifications. Key points included the purpose and structure of the Individual Support Plan for veterans, whether it should be mandatory, and how its implementation should be monitored. Other topics involved the VSS authority to act on behalf of veterans, collaboration with institutions, service verification, criteria for service provision, the need for a unified digital system, and building a strong knowledge base on veterans' rights and local services.
This platform for dialogue was established as a follow up to a series of monitoring visits conducted by the Office of the Ombudsperson, with the Project’s support, across five regions of Ukraine, where the issue of quality support to veterans consistently surfaced as a critical area of concern. Discussions with a wide range of stakeholders (local authorities, state institutions, hospitals, NGOs and veterans' community representatives) during these visits identified a fragmented nature of existing support mechanisms for veterans and the pressing need for a more integrated, responsive, and sustainable model of veteran support services on all stages of the reintegration process.
The strategic session was organised within the framework of the Council of Europe Project “Rights of Veterans and Personnel of Armed Forces in Ukraine”, which is part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” (2023-2026).
