Lack of medical treatment, problems with unit transfers are most common causes of appeals, new military ombudsman says

Twenty days into her new post as Ukraine's new military rights commissioner, Olha Reshetylova said that she had already received 3,876 appeals.

In what she described as a preliminary assessment in a Facebook post about her first days on the job, Reshetylova said that lack of treatment and referrals to military medical commissions and problems moving between military units are the two leading causes for the appeals she received.  

More than 3,500 of the appeals have been relevant to her post and concern protecting the rights of soldiers. A portion of these concerning advice or clarification, which she referred to lawyers working "almost around the clock."

"The rest of the appeals are substantive. Although each of them has its own individual problems, in general, of course, you can already see trends and separate blocks of problematic issues," Reshetylova wrote.

While acknowledging that requests for medical treatment can be abused and that commanders face a "catastrophic" personnel shortage, she noted cases where commanders had denied referrals for treatment of injuries, urgent and planned operations, acute PTSD or panic attacks, and symptoms of severe concussions.

In one appeal that she cited, a serviceman with HIV voluntarily mobilized at the start of the war, but has since developed bleeding ulcers and faces worsening health effects. The soldier received a referral for surgery but was threatened with a desertion complaint if he left.

While Reshetylova said she is personally calling commanders in some cases to address the issues, "attention to the health of a serviceman should become a priority for both military doctors, unit commanders, and the entire system as a whole," she said.

"It is not difficult to understand that in such a state the effectiveness of performing combat missions is low, and the mortality rate among servicemen due to diseases will grow. In addition, in the case of untreated mental disorder, a serviceman can pose a danger either to himself or to his comrades," Reshetylova wrote.

Regarding military unit transfers, servicemembers were promised in November a more efficient way for transfering between units using the Army+ app. However, she wrote, "very often commanders do not carry out the transfer order or specifically transfer servicemen against their will to other positions, which complicates the execution of the order."

"Now we’re also solving these issues manually, where we have time. But it’s obvious that we need to look for a systemic solution," Reshetylova wrote.

The third largest category of appeals comprised of questions from relatives of prisoners of war missing soldiers, according to Reshetylova.  

Ukraine's Defense Ministry announced in April that it would create the new military ombudsman position to ensure soldiers had a way to report violations of their rights.

The ombudsman "will be responsible for considering appeals and complaints of service members, providing primary legal assistance, conducting inspections, and investigating violations of the rights of service members and their families," the Defense Ministry said at the time.

Reshetylova previously co-founded and headed the Media Initiative for Human Rights, which has investigated war crimes related to the Russian war in Ukraine since 2016 and advocates for changes in government policies and social practices related to protecting human rights.

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The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Hodunova