Argumentation of the special social care concept for war veterans in Ukraine

Abstract

The value of adherence to basic liberal democratic approaches to market self-regulation of the economy is emphasised. At the same time, given the particularly difficult conditions that the Ukrainian people are going through, which has given rise to a separate priority public interest not only for Ukrainian society, the author considers the concept that not only socially vulnerable/unable to protect themselves, but also, first and foremost, citizens who perform extremely important duties to the State and their people deserve special recognition and provision of special social security, and improvement of conditions for the exercise of labour and other rights of war veterans. This idea is substantiated in accordance with the provisions of the main section of the Constitution of Ukraine, Ukrainian legislation, and the principles of labour and social security legislation.

The author distinguishes approaches of the state social security policy to different categories of citizens, in particular, two main ones: 1) when a certain regulation is established for subjects unconditionally, i.e. without any requirements regarding the corresponding obligations of such persons towards the state; 2) when the state policy with appropriate legal regulation of social protection and support is introduced for persons who have undertaken to perform particularly important priority functions for the state, to protect the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of the internationally recognised borders of Ukraine. In the latter case, it is emphasised that such regulation is conditional, since the priority is the fulfilment of a citizen's primary duty to the state, which gives rise to the right to social security for combatants, other war veterans and members of their families. It is logically suggested that in such a 'conditional' legal regulation of social security, the distinction between 'basic' and 'extended' social security would be consistent with the principles of social justice. At the same time, 'basic' social security is designed for all those who have performed a relevant duty towards the state, and 'extended' social security is created for volunteers, based on the criterion of forced (mobilised) or independent, voluntary performance of military duty (volunteers). Such a state policy would not only recognise the special role of war veterans, but would also be logically justified by the fact that volunteers have greatly simplified the already complex process of mobilising those liable for military service, thus saving the state some resources.