Serviceman Anton Chornyi, speaking with political analyst and Hvylya chief editor Yuriy Romanenko, outlined critical issues in the Military Medical Commission (VLK) system that can result in soldiers with severe injuries returning to the front line without adequate treatment.
According to the soldier, current legislation protects a serviceman for the first four months following an injury, but this period encompasses all stages of treatment.
"After a severe injury, you are not removed from staff for four months. But these four months include your inpatient treatment—mandatory hospital stays—as well as rehabilitation leave," Chornyi explained.
He noted that once this period expires, the process of passing the medical commission begins, accompanied by significant financial costs for the soldier, particularly if treatment takes place in a large city.
"You still have to live somehow during these four months... Money is spent. I need to pay for housing, food, transportation, and if I need to stay longer, I have to somehow negotiate with command," the soldier noted.
Chornyi identified the refusal to recognize documents from private clinics, even those with qualified specialists, as a primary cause of massive queues.
"Only hospitals can conduct the VLK... or it is mandatory that it be a state hospital. If the doctor is not from a state facility, but a private clinic... then all the stamps placed by the private hospital carry absolutely no weight," he emphasized.
When asked by Romanenko if these diagnoses are completely ignored, the serviceman replied: "Absolutely... You simply must stand through this entire bureaucratic queue strictly through the state system. Only through the state system; it is impossible otherwise."
The most critical issue is the discrepancy between the time allocated by command for the commission and the reality in hospitals. Soldiers are often given only a week or 10 days.
"You don't have time due to air raid alerts, due to the fact that this VLK process is disorganized. Because there are too many people; our entire system was not calculated for this volume," Chornyi said.
He described a typical scenario where a soldier physically cannot obtain the medical conclusion within the allotted time, leading to tragic consequences:
"A person arrives, for example, they gave him 10 [days], he arrived but didn't pass the VLK. So everyone says: 'Listen, you didn't pass the VLK—so you must be fit for duty. That's it.' But in reality, he is disabled, do you understand? 'Well, okay, fit, thank God'... And just like that—he is already back on the front line somewhere... When in reality, he should have been discharged long ago."