State grants help Ukrainian defenders start their own business

One of the cornerstones of an effective veterans' policy currently being developed by the Ministry of Veterans is the support and development of entrepreneurial initiatives by war veterans and their families. This includes several programs and initiatives of the Ukrainian Veterans Fund designed to help with the organizational and financial aspects of launching new or supporting existing self-employment projects for former defenders who have completed their military mission and are now planning to build their civilian lives through their own business.

THE STATE CREATES MODERN TOOLS TO PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF VETERAN BUSINESS

In particular, the microfinance program for veterans' businesses and their families, launched by the Veterans' Department and implemented by the Ukrainian Veterans' Fund, continues. The practical stage of the #VARTO+GO project continues (the minimum requested amount is UAH 500,000 and the maximum is UAH 1 million). In partnership with the MHP-Gromadi Foundation, the grant program for the development of veteran business "WORTH DOING YOUR OWN" in agriculture, food production and processing is being implemented. The winners of the competition receive from UAH 500,000 to UAH 1.5 million for their own business initiatives.

Also, at the initiative of the Ministry of Veterans, a section for veteran entrepreneurs and their families, Veteran Business, was launched on the Diia.Business portal, where you can find all the necessary information on developing and supporting your own business.

The head of the Ministry of Veterans Yulia Laputina once said that the state should create all the necessary conditions and provide modern tools so that, once Ukraine has won, our Defenders could join the country's recovery and become active on the economic front. One of these tools is to promote the development of veteran entrepreneurship and support veteran business initiatives.

In total, the #Varto and #Varto+GO programs supported 61 veteran businesses and various initiatives for veterans in 2022. The winners of these projects received over UAH 21 million. Thus, almost 280 veterans and family members of fallen defenders received financial support.

Last year, one of the winners of #Worthy 2.0 was the TANTO Psychological Hub in Irpin, Kyiv region. We get acquainted with the story of the team's leader, Denys Dudnyk, a military pilot by profession, a participant in the Revolution of Dignity and the ATO, and then the defense of the capital in 2022.

The hub provides mental health support and new mental skills to residents of the communities affected by Russian aggression in Bucha district and Irpin. The predominant format of work is online and offline group classes and individual counseling.

I THOUGHT I WAS MADE OF TITANIUM AND WOULD SURVIVE ANYTHING

In 1993, Denis graduated with honors from the Armavir Higher Military School of Pilots in Russia. He is a fighter pilot by profession. He says he really wanted to become an astronaut. Just like his classmate Aidyn Aimbetov, the third Kazakh and the first citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan to fly into space. But Dudnyk's desire to return to his native Ukraine outweighed his parents' desire to return to Bershadi, Vinnytsia region, where he graduated from high school.

I arrived in Kyiv, but it turned out that pilots were not needed here. Later, he was assigned to the Crimea to the Belbek air defense airfield - to the 62nd Fighter Regiment, where only first-class pilots had been assigned before.

"It was a dream. I lived practically on the seashore. However, there were few flights: there was a lack of fuel, the army was being destroyed... You know, even the fact that my salary was delayed for six months was somehow relatively indifferent. But the fact that we couldn't see the sky was really a tragedy. The final point was when an IL-76 arrived one day and a general got off in a Volga with his wife and dog to go on vacation. It burned so much fuel that I could probably fly for a month!" the interlocutor recalls the events of thirty years ago.

Eventually, in 1996, he resigned and vowed never to serve again. However, there were offers to go to other countries and fly, including Iran. But the man had already "fallen ill" with the idea of starting his own business. He says that he did a lot of things, including installing climate control equipment and consulting, and was a sales manager.

Denys Dudnyk met the year 2014 in the center of Kyiv, where the Revolution of Dignity was raging. "I'm very sensitive to such topics," he admitted in a conversation, because a military man cannot watch such events in the country indifferently. Since that spring, the former pilot and successful entrepreneur's life has once again taken a sharp turn.

Our hero joined the Kyiv-2 battalion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which at first was almost entirely volunteer-based. Then he was practically surrounded near Chornukhyne near Debaltseve, and served on a checkpoint near Volnovakha in the winter of 2015. Everyone got sick because it was cold and damp, because of the Grad attacks, the lack of people who were transferred to the Donetsk airport (DAP)...

After a while, he came home for a rotation. "I thought I was made of titanium and would survive everything," he recalled with a smile.

But the cold kidneys, hormonal problems, and tachycardia made themselves felt. And then, post-traumatic stress disorder hit me. Next came a rehabilitation center and another promise to himself to never deal with the army.

"When a person is in a stressful situation and the body is exhausted, there comes a time when adrenaline and cortisol are released in the blood. This has been with us since the days when humanity was chasing mammoths. That was to survive. However, when there are too many of these hormones, and there is no longer a threat, then the hormonal background is disturbed. And it is not necessary to be physically on the battlefield or to collect the remains of a fellow soldier in a bag. Just remembering or imagining something like that is enough to make a person with PTSD drown from adrenaline and cortisol! And the brain doesn't care how many years ago the events that triggered that flashback took place. If such processes occur constantly and intensify, at some point depression, apathy, or aggression develops," says Denys Dudnyk.

IF YOU'RE NOT STRONG, YOU HAVE ZERO CHANCE OF WINNING

But he didn't know that at the time. He didn't understand why he couldn't sleep at night, why his body and soul were so anxious and frantic.

"After the front, I went to serve in the police - as the head of a regular unit of the patrol service regiment in Kyiv. I had to be constantly on my toes, receive information, coordinate, but there were breakdowns... Conflicts with my wife began. I had a three-room apartment in Obolon. I packed my things and left. Before that, I resigned from the police. It happened before the New Year. And for the second time, I went to a rehabilitation center, where I met 2017. Then he lived in different places because his business went out of business while he was at war and serving, and his clients fled. During the Maidan and the war, all the money I had earned melted away. Later, I had to go to rehabilitation for the third time," the veteran says about the difficult period in his life.

While at the rehabilitation center, he met a disabled Maidan resident who wanted to open a workshop where people like him could make handmade knives. He was sure that this activity would have a rehabilitative effect. And it is true, because when you work with such dangerous machines as a grinder, you have to be very concentrated, otherwise you will get injured. In this way, a person is distracted from being too deep in their own thoughts.

The key is that thoughts give rise to emotions, and emotions affect hormones, which in turn affect health in general. Breaking this circle to put a stop to destructive flashbacks is the feature of Denys Dudnyk's author's course at the TANTO Center, which helps clients stop destructive self-eating. But there was a long road to this…

Denys helped his friend write an investment project, which is what he specialized in after graduating from IAPM (Interregional Academy of Personnel Management) and obtaining a second degree. The project was submitted to the STARTUP IRPIN competition and won. In 2017, he received funds and premises for a year free of charge. In the summer, I lived with a friend on a yacht in Obolon and went to Irpin to the "Bright Knives" workshop. Later, I moved to this green city and rented a house here. But the business didn't take off, rather it turned into a hobby. Denys says that without strong subsidies, this business does not work, because the products are too expensive. Or you need a large initial injection of funds, otherwise, to quote Sun Tzu, "if you are not strong, the probability of victory is zero."

Then he found himself working as the head of the Project Office of the State Tax University in Irpin. Until the war came knocking again...

THERE ARE CERTAIN UNIVERSAL THINGS THAT WORK TO BRING YOU BACK FROM A PARALLEL REALITY LIKE A SIMPLE SHOVEL

...In February 2022, the full-scale invasion of Russia began. Helicopters were flying, there was shooting and panic everywhere. But Irpin was famous for its very strong veterans' movement. His comrades-in-arms, including Dudnyk, quickly organized themselves. On February 25, he and the guys had already received their weapons and went to the bridge in Hostomel. They immediately realized that they were facing well-trained soldiers.

Then other misfortunes struck at once: Denys fell ill with covid, and the house in Irpin where he lived was destroyed by orcs. Now he has to live in the house of his late comrade...

"On March 21, I participated in repelling an enemy attack near the Irpin military hospital. There were four of us in the trench - they were shooting non-stop for seven hours. Suddenly the guys came to help us... But it would have been better not to do so: many were wounded and many died. We delayed the enemy's advance for a day. But there were few of us left, most of us were wounded, and we ran out of ammunition. However, we survived only because the Russians, having found themselves among quite wealthy houses, began to rob them, forgetting about the war. I was evacuated because of my concussion, and in the morning reinforcements arrived," our hero recounts one of the episodes of the defense of Irpin.

While being treated, he suffered another severe attack of PTSD, but Denys already knew what to do.

"Since childhood, I've been practicing auto-training and hypnosis to help me learn better. Wherever I studied, I was always an excellent student: at school, military school, IAPM... So the idea of collecting my own life hacks that helped me fight against myself seemed quite organic and successful. In fact, there are certain universal things: even though we are all different, they work to bring us back from a parallel reality like a simple shovel. There is a clear formula: the longer a person does not delve into their problem, over time, the return to the traumatic experience becomes very episodic, less vivid, and sometimes disappears altogether, at least in some radical manifestations. It's important not to break down, not to rush, because emotional swings are a very insidious thing. It took me three years to come to this conclusion," the hub's CEO shares his experience.

IF I WERE TO GO BACK SEVEN YEARS WITH MY CURRENT EXPERIENCE, I WOULD HAVE A DIFFERENT LIFE

Many veterans, when they return, want some more interesting job or business, perhaps even within their profession or skills. And some want to change their lives dramatically. But many will not know what to do next, will be at a crossroads of helplessness.

For six months after the defense of Irpin was completed, Denys walked around not knowing what to do next. He did not want to return to the university. Formally, he was in the local Volunteer territorial community formation (VTCF) - he is still in its reserve. But one day, a psychologist I knew, who was taking care of the local people with her team, suggested the idea of starting a psychological assistance center.

"This conversation took place a few days before the end of the Ukrainian Veterans Fund competition. But I made it, submitted an application, and later I got a call: you won! This grant provided funds for rent, advertising, and equipment. It is an office, furniture, in short, a well-equipped place where we provide services. We counsel veterans and IDPs free of charge. We provide first psychological aid. To stabilize a person's condition. It's as if we evacuate a person from a difficult situation, and then narrow specialists deal with psychotherapy and other non-critical things," the interviewee explains how he managed to start his veterans' case.

The Hub, as prescribed by the project, is currently fulfilling the indicators it reports to the USF. At certain stages, the Foundation can help. The indicators are the number of people to be served and the amount of money to be earned.

"Here's a person who saw no sense in life and wanted to commit suicide, and now he's working out in the gym and is happy, building his future after 10 consultations with us. Isn't this saved life worth the personal effort and a little time or even money? In our society, we need to break the stigma that only psychotic people should see a psychologist. No, this is an unfortunate misconception and ignorance! I once lost my property, my family, three years of my life because I was in a parallel reality, but I didn't do anything stupid due to my normal upbringing. I can always tell someone when I'm rescuing them that I've been through something similar myself. This is also a factor of trust that works. And I do not hesitate to tell all my clients: if I went back seven years ago, with my current experience, I would have a different life," our hero summarized powerfully

Hennadii Karpiuk

Photo - from the archive of Denys Dudnyk