Ukrainian Association of Disabled Veterans

Ukrainian Association of Disabled Veterans (Українська спілка воєнних інвалідів; Ukrainska spilka voiennykh invalidiv). An organization of disabled veterans founded by soldiers of the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) in the internment camps in Poland in the early 1920s. The first headquarters of the association was located in the Tarnów internment camp; then it moved to the Kalisz camp in 1923. The main goal of the organization was to support disabled UNR Army veterans, their families, widows, and orphans. It defended disabled veterans’ interests before the Polish government, aiming to improve their financial position. Although the Polish government did not grant the formal status of disabled veteran to UNR Army soldiers in the early 1920s and these veterans could not receive an allowance, authorities occasionally provided medical treatment, prostheses, and financial aid. As one of many UNR émigré organizations, the association was supported by the Ukrainian Central Committee in Poland.

The association established a Disabled Veterans’ Home in Kalisz, where 64 severely disabled men resided in early 1924. At that time, the total number of disabled UNR Army veterans in Poland constituted around 300 people. It also founded a furniture and basket-weaving workshop that employed disabled ex-combatants and ran a club canteen in Kalisz. Successful lobbying on behalf of UNR Army disabled veterans resulted in the presidential decree issued in June 1927 that changed their official status and provided them with the same state benefits as those enjoyed by former imperial and Polish Army disabled soldiers in Poland. In the early 1920s, Volodymyr Rohoza, a disabled double amputee, served as president of the association, as well as editor of its organ Ukraïns'kyi invalid (published in 1923 and 1926–31). In 1925, General Oleksander Zahrodsky took over as president and, under his leadership, the Ukrainian Association of Disabled Veterans joined the international veteran movement as a member of the Interallied Federation of War Veterans Organizations (FIDAC; Fédération Interalliée Des Anciens Combattants) and the International Conference of Associations of War Cripples and Ex-Servicemen (CIAMAC; Conférence internationale des associations de mutilés de guerre et anciens combattants), a pacifist organization that united disabled soldiers who had fought on different sides. The association also declared close cooperation with the largest Polish veteran organization, the Polish Union of Disabled Veterans. It had over 1,500 registered members and was active until 1939.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Statut Vseukraïns'koi spilky viis'kovykh invalidiv U.N.R. (Tarnów 1921)
Statut Ukraïns'koi spilky voiennykh invalidiv b. Armii Ukr. Narod Resp. (Kalisz, 1928)
Durka, Jarosław. ‘Ukraińscy inwalidzi wojenni byłej Armii Ukraińskiej Republiki Ludowej w polskim systemie opieki społecznej – zarys zagadnienia,’ Wschodni Rocznik Humanistyczny no 1 (2025)

Oksana Vynnyk

[This article was updated in 2026.]