LVIV, Ukraine -- With nearly 10,000 injured soldiers in Russia's war against Ukraine since 2014, the issue of rehabilitation is acute. Among those helping the wounded warriors is NATO, the political-military alliance that Ukraine aspires to join someday.
One of NATO’s latest projects in Ukraine is the June 1 grand opening of an occupational therapy kitchen and wheelchair repair workshop at the military hospital of the Western Operational Center in Lviv.
Since the 2014 beginning of Russia war against Ukraine, NATO has intensified cooperation and support in many areas, including intelligence sharing and humanitarian aid.
“We are interested in helping Ukraine defend itself,” said Alexander Vinnikov, head of NATO Representation in Ukraine. “That is why we have adopted a number of package of practical support measures, including boosting our advisory mission, which helps Ukraine to conduct deep and comprehensive reforms in the security and defense sector.”
Vinnikov said that NATO is likely to increase its financial assistance to Ukraine at the upcoming NATO Summit in Warsaw on July 8-9.
NATO trust fund projects that include assisting wounded Ukrainian soldiers started in 2014, with contributions from individual countries in the 28-nation alliance.
About 5 million euros have been raised for the four trust funds, which include: C4 (command, control, communications and computers), logistics and standardization, cyber defense, training for military career transition and medical rehabilitation.
The medical rehabilitation budget is more than 2.2 million euros, but has raised less than 200,000 euros so far by recent estimates.
The military clinical center in western Ukraine, for instance, received equipment worth 40,000 euros in the last year.
The fund also supports military medical centers throughout Ukraine, including the military hospital in Lviv, Novi Sanzhary Medical Center in Poltava Oblast, a Kharkiv prosthetics center and several centers in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast. NATO supports discharged soldiers to ensure they have quick access to medical care. It also supports long-term rehabilitation services.
The celebration of the recent two additions include the occupational therapy kitchen, which helps soldiers who suffered severe injuries to adapt. The other is the wheelchair repair workshop, which will be used to perform maintenance and repairing of wheelchairs for those who require it. Total support comes to 75,000 euros.
“NATO partners helped us to equip this workshop with tools and buy five wheelchairs for our department,” says Yuriy Metko, a rehabilitation therapist, who works at the military hospital.
The process of getting a wheelchair from the Ukrainian government takes up to seven months, including a few months of treatment.
“We select and fit a wheelchair for the individual. NATO gave us two wheelchairs by Invacare company made in Sweden, while three others were produced in Ukraine,” says Pavlo Kozak, a wheelchair instructor.
The occupational therapy kitchen is adapted to people with special needs.
“We call it occupational therapy kitchen because here is not only a place to cook,but a dining room, washing machine, dryer, various tables and computers, shelves. The patient may do everything he does at home. It is a multi-functional space,” says Mykola Svyshch, a rehabilitation therapist.
The equipment is adjustable.
“You can put a shelf forward, it goes up and down. It’s very difficult to operate for a person with disabilities by himself and therefore we teach people self-reliance so they feel independent in all aspects of life,” Svyshch said.
One of the hospital patients, Vasyl Varyvoda, arrived for rehabilitation two weeks ago. He says that before he came, it was difficult to manage everything by himself.
“Now it is all available. I really like it here, because everything is very accessible,” Varyvoda said.
” Out of more than 30 trust fund projects that we currently manage or have managed so far, this project is certainly one of the most important we have ever done – not necessarily from financial or technical perspective. But it touches human lives directly and affects the way people live and will continue to live in a future and in that respect we extremely value its importance,” said Rene Roy, a project manager.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Social Affairs works with NATO.
“We are in the process of restructuring. Together with our partners, we want to provide NATO standards and teach Ukrainian specialists», – says Vasyl Shevchenko, first deputy minister of social policy.
Shevchenko said that the ministry is working on providing bionic technologies that have already been implemented in Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, the war threw us challenges, including rehabilitation. And these challenges are what we do with our partners and colleagues from NATO,” Shevchenko said.
Rostyslav Danylko, head of the regenerative treatment department, has been working with severely injured patients for two years.
“We started to receive patients with the most severe traumatic brain injury in June 2014, when first spinal patients who were wounded in the fight arrived to the department. Our first physical therapists who came to us to volunteer helped us to work with patients in the same intensive care in the department of neurosurgery. At the beginning they simply put the mat on the floor between beds and performed exercises with patients,” Danylko said.
Today, the treatment center includes six rooms with 20 beds for rehabilitation of patients, two rehabilitation gyms with modern equipment, a treatment pool, a room for relaxation and massage as well as, the latest improvement — a comprehensive occupational therapy kitchen and wheelchair repair workshop.
