On stage

JH

Jeffrey Hartman

Moderator · Ukrainian Action

RP

Ruslan Prykhodko

Dep. Min. of Veterans Affairs

Oleksandr Kobzarev

Unbroken

OR

Omar Ritter

US combat veteran & author

BN

Brooks Newmark

former UK MP

The panel examined how government policy and the private sector can help veterans move from service into leadership in business, politics and civil society. Prykhodko described a veteran-centric monitoring and support model, Kobzarev argued for many independent veteran communities rather than a single national body, Ritter drew on the US GI Bill, small-business loans and education model, and Newmark described hiring veterans through his company and leveraging the volunteer sector. Recurring themes were community, respect, and not leaving returning veterans isolated.

The substance

Key takeaways

1

The Deputy Minister described a case-monitoring philosophy of "not losing a single person," backed by a digital CRM system that would track each veteran's needs across their whole life — an attempt to replace ad-hoc goodwill with a coordinated, accountable system.

2

He argued decentralization is the core challenge: national programs mean little if a returning defender's own community never checks on them, and he cited a devastating account of a veteran whose comrade died by suicide after coming home to complete indifference from his village.

3

The founder of the Unbroken Foundation warned explicitly against a single national veterans' organization, saying it would become a target for capture by politicians, oligarchs or criminal interests, and instead called for many diverse veteran communities — sports, cultural, professional — built on the trust of peer-to-peer support.

4

The US combat-veteran author on the panel pointed to America's three post-Vietnam pillars — housing (GI Bill), small-business loans and education — as a proven template, while urging veterans directly: do not suffer in silence, because support systems only work if the veteran reaches for them.

5

A former UK MP now employing veterans in Ukraine argued that combat experience makes people tougher and more resilient rather than less employable, and that government should act as an enabler while leveraging the voluntary sector methodically, oblast by oblast, so individuals don't fall through the cracks.

In their words

Key quotes

“

We have to make veterans not part of the problem, but part of the solution.

Oleksandr Kobzarev

“

We should never leave a veteran alone with his own personal fight in his mind.

Oleksandr Kobzarev

“

Do not suffer in silence.

Omar Ritter

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