The development of the Ministry of Veterans' Affairs pilot project to introduce a veteran's assistant in Ukraine continues. There are more than 450 candidates for 400 planned positions of assistants in four pilot regions. This was reported by Svitlana Berezina, Director General of the Directorate for Strategic Planning and European Integration of the Ministry of Veterans' Affairs, on air of the national telethon Yedyni Novyny (United News).

"Some of the candidates have already passed the two-stage selection process: submission of an electronic application and an interview at the local government at the place of residence. They are currently undergoing specialized training at the Veteran Development Centers at leading universities," she told the audience.

Candidates for veterans' assistants are war veterans, members of their families, or family members of fallen defenders. This is due to the fact that one of the principles of the pilot project is "peer to peer".

"We took into account research and the experience of our international partners that it is veterans who have already integrated into civilian life who are well aware of the needs of their comrades who are just returning from the front. Or their family members. For example, there are many wives of veterans among the future assistants who have expressed a desire to join the project because they helped their husbands go through the difficult path of returning to civilian life," said Svitlana Berezina.

The training program for future veteran service and support specialists lasts three weeks and includes six modules. In Vinnytsia and Mykolaiv regions, the first wave of candidates has already completed their training and is awaiting employment.

"We expect changes to the government decree that will allow us to employ veterans' assistants in existing municipal institutions that are already implementing veterans' policies in the regions. Another principle of the assistants' work is their proactive activity - they are not office workers, they will be in constant contact with veterans and their families, advising and helping on the ground," emphasized Svitlana Berezina.

As a reminder, Vinnytsia, Dnipro, Lviv and Mykolaiv regions are participating in the "pilot" to introduce the institute of veteran's assistant. Soon, communities of Sumy, Poltava, Zakarpattia, Kharkiv, Kyiv regions and the city of Kyiv will join the pilot. After the pilot is completed, the project will be scaled up across Ukraine, with a total of 15,000 veterans' assistants planned to be trained by the end of 2024.