During an international conference in Washington, D.C., American experts supported a “public plan for reforms” of veteran policy in Ukraine.
On April 11, an international conference “Effective Veterans’ Policy in Ukraine: International Experience” was held in Washington, D.C., initiated by the NGO Free and Faithful, which aims to reform Ukraine’s veterans’ policy based on American experience.
Ukrainian and American politicians and experts joined the discussion of the reform plan, including: Pateh Husi, analyst at The Hudson Institute; John Kilmer, founder of Valicor US; Colleen Denny, European Affairs Director at Spirit of America; Daniel White, analyst; Oleksiy Ilyashenko, former Deputy Minister of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine (2019-2022); Megan Weatherman, President of the R. T. Weatherman Foundation Megan Mobbs, President of the Women’s War Memorial Foundation Phyllis Wilson, CEO of Reach (Reach Tactical LLC.) Josh Marcano and others. More than 50 participants took part in the discussion and 17 reports were presented.
According to the initiator of the conference, volunteer soldier, head of the Free and Faithful NGO, Vitalii Hersak, this is the second round of discussion, which specifies and deepens the proposals that were first made during the conference in Kyiv in late February.
“Today, we actually have a ‘public reform plan’ that our American partners have contributed to and are supporting the implementation of. The developed plan opens up ways to strengthen cooperation between the United States and Ukraine in supporting veterans. Now it is necessary to take swift and coordinated action to translate these recommendations into concrete programs and services. In particular, in the course of reforming Ukraine’s veteran policy, it is proposed to focus on such issues as medical rehabilitation, housing, education and employment, creating conditions for the development of veteran entrepreneurship, protection of women veterans and development of the legal framework for veteran policy,” Hersak said.
The corresponding plan for reforming veteran policy in Ukraine based on the recommendations of American experts will soon be presented and submitted for implementation.
As previously reported, the NGO “Free and Faithful” together with its partners initiated the creation of an international communication platform to adapt American veteran practices to the Ukrainian context. In February, the first conference and video bridge between Kyiv and Washington, DC, took place, with 55 experts from 8 countries participating.
