On November 16, a regular meeting of the ATO Veterans’ Council of the UKROP party took place on the sidelines of the parliament. The event was attended by former ATO participants, volunteers, MPs from the “Ukrainian Association of Patriots” and members of the families of captives and missing military.
Participants of the meeting decided to join the drafting of the bill on the official status of prisoners of war. This will allow launching a mechanism for the liberation of the Ukrainian captives who have been kept in the torture chambers of militants for years.
“It is clear to us that the authorities are not interested in adoption of the law that will formally introduce the status of prisoners of war. During a year the president has promised to submit an appropriate document to parliament, but did not do it,” said Taras Batenko, the chairman of the UKROP political council.
In addition, the representatives of the ATO Veterans’ Council plan to initiate the allocation of financial assistance to the families of captives from local budgets. In the near future, lists of such families will be made with the reference to the territories where they live.
After that, at sessions of local councils the deputies from UKROP will propose to adopt decisions on provision of material consideration on the ground. It is also planned to create a special reserve fund in order to allow assistance to be provided on a regular basis.
“The decisions adopted at this meeting will have practical implications. The authorities have forgotten the guys at war, but if they know that someone support their families, it will be much easier for them,” said the head of the ATO Veterans’ Council of the UKROP party, curator of the Kryvbas Battalion Mykola Kolesnyk.
Besides, members of the Veterans’ Council agreed to prepare proposals on possible mechanisms for the involvement of international humanitarian expert groups in the search for missing military. During four years from the beginning of the war, no official body that would deal with this problem at the state level has been created.
“For me this is a priority. If there are at least some information about the captives, no steps have been taken for the search of missing military,” added Mykola Kolesnyk.
According to him, there are dozens of confirmed facts of the forced transportation of Ukrainian military personnel to the territory of the Russian Federation, but none of the law enforcement agencies are investigating such crimes.
