NATO and Japan provide Ukraine with rehabilitation pool for wounded soldiers
On Friday (31 March 2017), NATO, in collaboration with Japan, officially opened a new rehabilitation pool at the Ukrainian Research Institute for Prosthesis Design, Prosthetic Building and Work Ability Rehabilitation in Kharkiv, Ukraine. The pool will assist Ukraine in improving its rehabilitation service for wounded and disabled servicemen and civilians. The delivery of the pool also marks the success of the first programme of NATO and Japanese cooperation in Ukraine.
NATO’s assistance for the new rehabilitation pool was provided through the Medical Rehabilitation Trust Fund for Ukraine. The Trust Fund is led by Bulgaria and supports Ukraine in treating injured servicemen and women from the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine. A particular focus for the Trust Fund’s work is developing the capacity of its own medical rehabilitation system, in light of the critical need for a long-term solution for the issue of care for wounded service personnel. This includes NATO’s provision of specialist rehabilitation equipment to centres across Ukraine, as well as vital training for Ukrainian rehabilitation professionals. The NATO Trust Fund also supports sports rehabilitation camps for injured Ukrainian soldiers, as well as the Ukrainian team’s participation in the Invictus games and the US Marine Marathon in Washington.
The Medical Rehabilitation Trust Fund is one of many ways NATO assists Ukraine. At the 2014 Wales Summit, NATO established five Trust Funds to help Ukraine better provide for its security. The Trust Funds are now part of the Comprehensive Assistance Package, which all 28 Allied leaders endorsed at the 2016 Warsaw Summit. The Package aims to consolidate and enhance NATO’s assistance for Ukraine to enable it to become more resilient and carry out essential reforms in the security and defence sectors.