Injured Ukrainian Air Defense commander faces salary freeze and bureaucratic hurdles while in rehab
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Vitaliy Shumey, a Ukrainian Air Defense commander currently undergoing rehabilitation after being seriously injured, has not received his salary since March 2023 and still has not been grated disability status, Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne reported on Jan. 15.
Shumey had been receiving his military salary, combat pay, bonuses, and other payments before he went to Spain in March 2023 for inpatient treatment recommended by Ukraine’s medical commission, according to his father, Serhiy Shumey.
“After our departure, all payments stopped,” his father said.
“The unit told us, ‘You are abroad, no salary is provided.’ So, until we come back — there will be nothing.”
Vitaliy Shumey and his father returned to Ukraine in November 2023 and began rehabilitation in Lviv, which was immediately reported to his unit.
“The deputy political officer said that I have to send a certificate of stay in the institution to the unit every week,” Serhiy Shumey said.
“I do this every Wednesday, but my son still doesn't get anything.”
Vitaliy Shumey has not yet officially passed the medical examination needed to obtain disability status. However, the medical commission's ruled in February 2023 that Shumey’s injuries were severe, linked to homeland defense, and that he was declared unfit for military duty.
The medical commission told Serhiy Shumey that this document would be valid for at least two years However, Vitaliy Shumey’s brother sent the certificate to his unit on July 5, 2023, only to be informed that it was not, in fact, valid.
"When we returned and started to deal with this, they told me to take Vitalik back to the medical commission,” Serhiy Shumey said.
“How am I supposed to do that? You can't just interrupt rehabilitation.”
Vitaliy Shumey served in the ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation) after 2014 returned to service after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 and was seriously injured near Avdiivka later that year.
His brother is also enlisted.
But, says their father, “for the state, it turns out, it seems as if we are unnecessary.”
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