Why Ukrainian medics who suffered from shelling do not receive proper payments

Almost 200 of them died. The state provides that this risk must be compensated: in the event of injury, doctors are entitled to payments of up to 800 thousand UAH, and in the event of death, their families should receive a million. However, in practice, few achieve this. What is the reason, Socportal learnt.

Why the Law Works Poorly

The Law of Ukraine “On lump-sum monetary assistance for harm to life and health caused to workers of critical infrastructure facilities, civil servants, local government officials as a result of military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine” № 2980 provides:

In case of disability of a medical worker is paid from 800 to 200 thousand UAH depending on the severity, and in case of death of a medic because of the Russian attack, his family is entitled to 1 million hryvnia.

These rights also apply to other workers in critical infrastructure facilities — including energy workers, railway workers, and those in defense enterprises. However, the law being implemented is ineffective due to bureaucratic hurdles — as of May, 60% of applicants were refused. And this is despite a separate budget having been allocated for payments to the victims, which remains largely unused. The fact is that payments should be made by the Pension Fund of Ukraine. By virtue of the established procedure, it requires that the enterprise or institution where the injured or dead employee worked be included in a special Register of critical infrastructure facilities. If the enterprise is not there (and most of them are not, because the procedure of entering is uncoordinated and complicated), then the injured or the families of the victims are refused. It is absurd when the Pension Fund does not consider a tank factory to be critical infrastructure. Or it denies payment to the conductor of evacuation flights, who was awarded the title of “National Legend of Ukraine” by President Zelensky.

The situation with medics is no exception — as of the beginning of 2025, 194 civilian medical workers are known to have died. The Ministry of Health refused to provide data on whether all the dead were at work, as well as how many medics were disabled due to Russian shelling, when asked by Socportal. However, there are more and more cases in the court register, when families decided to appeal against the decision of the Pension Fund to refuse to pay millions of hryvnias in compensation.

How many medics prove in the courts the right to payments

14 July 2022 is one of the black days for Ukraine. Then because of the Russian strike on Vinnitsa 29 people were killed, among them three children, including 4-year-old Liza, who starred in a Christmas video by Olena Zelenskaya. In the epicenter of the impact was the medical center "Neuromed". There, a 7-year-old boy died along with his mother, as well as another female visitor. Her 8-year-old son received severe burns and underwent more than 30 operations. Among the employees of the medical center, four people died — an administrator, a manager, a child neurologist and a neurologist.

The family of the neurologist applied to the Pension Fund for payment, but was refused because the medical facility was not included in the Register of Critical Infrastructure Facilities. So the family decided to fight for the right to legal payments in court. It is noteworthy that, even though "Neuromed" is a private medical institution, the court noted that, due to its main activity, it, based on the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 1109 dated 9 October 2020 belongs to the sector of critical infrastructure "Healthcare", despite the absence of the corresponding entry in the Register of facilities. And confirmed the right of the family of the deceased doctor to payments.

Another example — on 15 March 2024, 21 people were killed in Odessa as a result of Russian shelling, and more than 70 others were injured.

Among the dead was a paramedic of the ambulance brigade of the Odessa Regional Centre for Emergency Medical Aid and Disaster Medicine. The doctor and the driver of his brigade were injured. The wife of the deceased medic applied for payments under Law № 2980, but was refused by the FIU because the ambulance paradoxically was not critical infrastructure.

In this case, the court also sided with the family, also stating that health care facilities are critical infrastructure by default. Moreover, in this case, the healthcare facility was even separately listed in the Critical Infrastructure Register. Why in such a case, the Pension Fund still tried to deny payments to the family is a question. It has still not paid the woman and is challenging the decision in appeal.

Another case is the shelling of Kherson City Clinical Hospital on 1 August 2023.

An ENT doctor was fatally wounded. The nurse has a traumatised jaw, she is receiving medical care, the regional military administration said at the time.

In the end, the woman, who worked as a senior nurse in the otolaryngology department, received the II group of disability. She left her job at the hospital and applied to the Pension Fund for payments under the Law № 2980, which guarantees payment of UAH 500 thousand. However, the Pension Fund refused the payment, again referring to the fact that the hospital is not in the Register of critical infrastructure objects. In this case, the court also referred to the fact that all medical institutions are critical infrastructure. It also noted that the administration of Kherson City Clinical Hospital was preparing a package of documents to be sent to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine for further identification and categorization of the critical infrastructure object. The Pension Fund will appeal the decision again.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning the shelling of Kyiv on 8 July 2024. Thirty-three people were killed then, including five children. The Russians targeted two medical institutions — the Ohmatdyt children's hospital, where a visitor and one doctor were killed, and the private maternity hospital Adonis, where four patients and five employees, including a cashier, two nurses, an ultrasound doctor and an obstetrician-gynecologist, were killed. There is no word on whether the families of the deceased workers have sued for benefits under Law № 2980.

However, the case of Adonis did resonate. The Pension Fund refused to pay to the husband of the deceased nurse the assistance assigned in case of death in the workplace to all insured persons, regardless of belonging to critical infrastructure. These amounts are smaller — up to 320 thousand UAH. But the Pension Fund often refuses payments, questioning whether the deceased and their relatives were really one family. In this case, the refusal was based on the fact that the husband and the deceased nurse had different residence permits. It is known that the man sued the Pension Fund.

What the Ministry of Health is deficient in

As noted, the Pension Fund of Ukraine denies payments under Law № 2980 mainly because the enterprise where workers were killed or injured was not included in a special Register of Critical Infrastructure Facilities. In the above examples, the courts appeal to common sense, arguing that no registers are needed to prove that medical centers, even private ones, are critical infrastructure facilities. However, not everyone, faced with a refusal by the FIU, goes to court. The situation would be much simpler if all medical centers were included in the Register. And this is the task of the relevant department — the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. Health care institutions should prepare documents for inclusion, and the Ministry of Health should submit them to the State Service of Special Communication, which is in charge of the Register.

From the data of the Ministry of Health available to Socportal, it is known that as of May 2025, the Ministry has entered 268 objects of critical infrastructure of the health sector. While there are more than a thousand hospitals and two thousand polyclinics in Ukraine.

The Ministry of Health also noted that as of May they are aware that in two medical centers included in the Register of critical infrastructure facilities, there were cases of death or injury of doctors. This was in the performance of their duties. We are talking about Kherson, where one person died, and 30 people were injured. And also about Kyiv, where one person was killed, and 30 people were injured. In Kyiv, according to the Ministry of Health, the victims, or their family members did not apply to the Pension Fund for payments under Law № 2980. And in Kherson, family members of the deceased applied for payment, but they were refused. The Ministry of Health has no data on what motivated the refusal.

In other words, there is no centralized entry of all medical institutions into the Register, no monitoring of injured doctors who applied for increased payments, and even less legal support from the Ministry of Health.

What to do for affected health professionals or their families

To be sure that proper payments under Law № 2980 will be available, medical professionals can ask their medical center and the Ministry of Health at any time whether their medical center is included in the Register of Critical Infrastructure. This can be done by personal appeal under the law “On Access to Public Information". A request should be sent to the official legal addresses or emails of the medical center and the Ministry of Health.

This can also be done by the trade union of the medical center. While a rank-and-file worker could theoretically refuse to provide this information, citing the risks of martial law, the trade union has broader powers, especially concerning the social protection of workers.

If a tragedy has already occurred and the Pension Fund refuses, citing the absence of the medical center in the Register, you should go to court.

As practice shows, courts mostly consider every medical institution, even private ones, to be critical infrastructure. It is also important that the application must be submitted no later than three years after the tragedy occurred. Otherwise, the Pension Fund may refuse, notes Vitalii Dudin, an activist of the NGO "Social Movement", who, as a lawyer, has seen several similar cases.

According to him, this norm is extremely unfair. Law № 2980 was adopted only in 2023, and the Register began to be filled in 2024. That is, the victims of the tragedy, which occurred in 2022, may now lose the right to payments.

Now, in the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada are ongoing discussions on how to change the Law № 2980 to guarantee payments to all victims. Among the proposals are to remove the 3-year limitation, as well as to consider institutions or establishments as critical infrastructure objects due to the nature of their activities, rather than their inclusion in the Register. This is the principle that has guided the courts to consider all medical centers as belonging to the critical infrastructure sector "Health". Such an approach would be in the interests not only of medical professionals, but also of employees of all other enterprises whose work is critical to the state.