President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the adoption in the first reading of the draft Law "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Granting Status and Social Guarantees to Individuals Among the Participants of the Antiterrorist Operation" (No. 2045-1) and is looking forward to its adoption as a whole.
“Each of us owes to the volunteers who defended our Ukraine. I think this is the right answer. Unfortunately, this is happening only now, not five years ago,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy told media representatives in Mariupol.
The Head of State said that support for that law had been discussed at a number of meetings with volunteers, which he had held recently.
The President promised to sign the document after its adoption as a whole.
“I am sure that the Parliament will pass this bill in the second reading. I'll sign it. We have set a goal to do this by November 15,” he said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that the bill would help volunteers gain the status of combatants and receive respective social guarantees of the military.
"The injustice of the current legislation is that volunteers who have been wounded or got a concussion may be granted the status of a disabled veteran, but for some reason cannot gain the status of a combatant. This is a disrespect for the dignity, military honor of people who also took arms, went to the east of Ukraine and defended our independence,” the Head of State emphasized.
According to the President, to obtain the status of a combatant, volunteers who performed tasks in the ATO area in cooperation with representatives of security forces but do not have documentary evidence will need to provide notarized evidence of persons who fought with them.
“Such a procedure may not be ideal for someone in terms of the letter of the law, but we think it is in line with the spirit of the law. We understand that at the beginning of the war there were completely different tasks and paperwork was not always a priority,” Volodymyr Zelensky said.
