Main image: Injured soldiers at the Recovery rehabilitation center listen to Oleksandr Budko, a 28-year-old veteran, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 18. During his visits to rehabs, soldiers ask Budko lots of practical questions about things like prosthetics and health care. Oksana Parafeniuk for NPR / Oksana Parafeniuk
In Ukraine, there are over 130,000 veterans with disabilities resulting from the war. This was reported by Deputy Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Ruslan Prykhodko during a televised broadcast.
“Currently, Ukraine has more than 130,000 veterans with disabilities caused by the war—across various groups, due to different types of injuries, health impairments, wounds, concussions, and mutilations. As for visual impairments or blindness specifically, unfortunately, there is no precise and detailed statistics. However, in 2023, the State Rehabilitation Center reported over 18,000 veterans with such issues,” Prykhodko said.
He noted that non-governmental organizations working with veterans who have partial or total vision loss report a very high percentage of such cases.
According to him, the dynamics of combat, including the widespread use of FPV drones, have significantly changed the nature of injuries sustained by Ukrainian defenders during military operations.
“For veterans with complete vision loss, it is extremely important at the primary stage to properly organize work with the patient—teaching them basic self-care skills during the post-acute period and rehabilitation. Later, this work must continue systematically,” Prykhodko added.
