Canada will provide UAH 1.25 billion to support Ukrainian veterans and their families

Canada will direct 40.1 million Canadian dollars, which is about 1.25 billion UAH, to support Ukrainian veterans and their family members. The funds will be the first contribution to the new international multi-donor veterans’ fund.

This was announced by the Minister of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine, Vitaly Kim.

Why create a new fund

Agreements on support were reached by Ukraine and Canada following a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The new international fund should combine the help of partners around the needs of Ukrainian veterans and their families. The raised funds are planned to be used for the recovery and rehabilitation of veterans, as well as assistance during the transition from military service to civilian life.

According to Kim, it is important for Ukraine to move from separate financial assistance programs to a system model of support. The multi-donor format should make it possible to attract more international partners and additional resources to the veteran policy.

Canada will make the first contribution

The first contribution to the fund will amount to 40.1 million Canadian dollars — about 1.25 billion hryvnias. The Ukrainian side also expects that other states and international partners will join the initiative in the future.

Vitaly Kim is currently on a working visit to Canada. During the trip, he holds meetings with Canada’s Minister of Veterans Affairs Jill McKnight and Secretary of State for International Development Randeep Sarai.

How they plan to change support for veterans in Ukraine

Earlier, Kim presented five key areas of the new veterans policy: state support, transition to civilian life, health and recovery, commemoration and economic independence of veterans.

A separate emphasis is planned to be placed on digitalization of services and reduction of bureaucracy. In particular, if the necessary information about the veteran is already in the government systems, it should not be requested repeatedly or the person should be forced to independently transfer documents between different institutions.