For Families of Missing and Captured Military Personnel

Contents

Information about the status of missing or captured military personnel

Information about the status of missing or captured foreign military personnel is provided by the Ukrainian side to the diplomatic representation of the state of origin of the personnel.

The duty to inform the family rests with the authorities of the state from which the personnel comes.

In practice, different states have different approaches to this process: in Germany, notification is performed by the police; in France – by a special crisis centre; in Colombia – directly by diplomats. It should be noted that Colombia does not have diplomatic representation in Ukraine; therefore, all notifications are sent through the Embassy of Colombia in Poland. Sometimes, this may cause problems, such as delays in responses from the diplomatic mission or refusals to assist. In such cases, the contact details of families, collected by military units at the time of signing the contract, may be useful. Therefore, sometimes the units themselves provide initial notification of the family, although this is prohibited under governing documents. In addition, units hand over the personnel's belongings to the family.

Documents to receive financial support

Subsequently, the family must prepare documents to receive the personnel's financial support.

To do this, it is necessary to collect a package of documents, each must be apostilled or certified by a Ukrainian consulate:

• a copy of the national passport and a copy of the certificate in case of a change of name/surname,

• a copy of a document confirming the registered place of residence,

• a copy of a document confirming family ties (marriage certificate, birth certificate of children, birth certificate of the missing personnel – for parents),

• in case of the death of a family member, a copy of the death certificate,

• in case the military personnel were unmarried and/or had no children, a copy of a document confirming these statuses,

• in case a family member wishes to transfer their share to another, a notarised power of attorney for such an act,

• a copy of the tax ID.

After this, the family has two options:

• a family representative with powers of attorney from other family members travels to Ukraine personally, where a notarised translation of the entire package of documents into Ukrainian is prepared, an application for payment is submitted, and a bank account is opened in a Ukrainian bank;

• family representatives send a package of documents, along with a power of attorney, to a relative/lawyer/other family representative in Ukraine, who then carries out the same procedure.

It is essential to note that 50% of the financial support is retained in the personnel account, and the remaining amount can be claimed in equal shares by the spouse, parents, and underage children. The personnel may make their own decisions regarding the desired distribution of funds if they are declared missing or captured. However, under Ukrainian law, underage children must always be included in the distribution. If the personnel are unmarried, have no underage children, and have no parents, then 20% of the financial support is provided to adult children.