Ukraine veteran support

By early 2026, more than 1.4 million combatants in Ukraine were registered as veterans, triple the 2022 figure. Once hostilities cease, a massive wave of service members will transition to civilian life – many displaced, many wounded, and many coping with psychological trauma. This scale exceeds anything seen in OECD countries in recent history, while Ukraine simultaneously faces high poverty, demographic decline, reduced public service capacity, and mental health infrastructure severely strained by years of full-scale war. Despite ongoing reforms and the creation of digital tools such as Diia and MARTA, Ukraine’s systems for early needs identification and timely, integrated mental health support remain underdeveloped – yet these are precisely the areas that will determine long-term reintegration success. Building on experience with veteran support policy in Australia, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, this paper focuses on the transition from military to civilian life and various aspects of mental health policies in that transition.