Hero of Ukraine, officer of the National Guard of Ukraine, and sniper Dmytro Finashyn met a full-scale invasion of Russia in the Luhansk region. In May 2022, during the battle in the Donetsk region, he was seriously wounded and was presumed to be killed. However, Dmytro survived, underwent rehabilitation after losing his arm, and returned to the ranks of the Defence Forces of Ukraine.
He shared with online.ua how Ukrainian civilians react to veterans and what they must pay attention to.
Society needs to get used to veterans
Dmytro Finashyn says there is no excessive attention from civilians — people live their lives.
Often, even if you are in uniform — although I am in uniform rarely — they generally look the other way and pretend you do not exist. If you're walking, someone is looking so closely to see if you've hidden your hand somewhere inside your jacket or if you don't have a hand — except in this form.
Dmytro Finashyn
National Guard officer, sniper, Hero of Ukraine
Society does not know how to behave. They have to get used to it, because veterans are specific people, they are people who have their own psychological traumas and very difficult experiences.
According to Finashyn, somewhere you need to be understanding, somewhere you need to read literature on how to treat such people, because PTSD is a story that many will have.
For example, for business — you open your store, lay cobblestones or tiles near your premises, please make that exit from the sidewalk to the road, think about others, everyone will be grateful to you and mothers with strollers.
Finashyn also shared his experience with ramps: "You come, there are five steep steps. I climb them a little with caution, and there are simply two one-and-a-half meters welded to them С-channel at an angle of 45 degrees, and you look and understand that it was supposedly done so that a person could get up on a chair."
It seems that it is there according to the law? Yes, it is. [But] I would put the owner of this store in that chair and tell him to go. It's just bullying people. It is contempt for people, as far as I am concerned. I would severely punish for that.
Dmytro Finashyn says that everyone will return to civilian life after the service. He says they will be veterans, but they will have to live.
Everyone should think about how exactly to create these opportunities for these people.
