Ukraine Creates a New Office to Protect Soldiers' Rights

In October 2024, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Olha Reshetylova to lead a newly created Military Ombudsman office. This new position exists to monitor and address problems affecting soldiers, reservists, and police officers involved in the war. The role was authorized by a law passed by Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.

An ombudsman is basically a government official who investigates complaints from the public when they believe the government has treated them unfairly. Ukraine already had one general ombudsman who covered human rights broadly. This new Military Ombudsman focuses specifically on people in the armed forces and related services.

What the New Law Does

The law that created this office sets out exactly how it will work. The president appoints and can remove the Military Ombudsman — a choice that places the position within the executive branch. But the office has a key built-in check: Reshetylova must submit a public annual report to both the president and parliament every March 30th, according to the Kyiv Post.

This dual reporting to both the executive and legislature matters. When reports go to parliament, they become public records that lawmakers, civil society groups, and international observers can review and question. That transparency creates accountability.

The office does more than just take complaints. It's designed to study why violations happen — looking for patterns in how soldiers are treated and feeding that data back to military leaders so they can fix problems at the source. Think of it less as a complaint box and more as a combination of a help desk and a research institute aimed at improving the system itself.

The Broader Context of Ukraine's Rights Monitoring

Ukraine already had layers of oversight before this new law. Parliament's existing human rights commissioner had created a separate department just to monitor military-related rights issues. So now there are two offices doing similar work — the parliamentary commissioner's department and this new Military Ombudsman's office.

The overlap between these two offices raises a practical question. Both can receive complaints about soldier welfare. In the long run, they will need to figure out clear rules about which office handles which cases and how to avoid duplicating work or missing problems that fall through the cracks. Most established ombudsman systems work this out by writing agreements between the offices rather than through new laws.

The Scale of the Challenge

To understand what Reshetylova's office is taking on, consider the numbers from Ukraine's existing parliamentary ombudsman. In 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion, that office received defense-sector complaints broken down as follows: 51 percent concerned prisoners of war and missing soldiers; 21 percent involved protecting active servicemembers and their families; 16 percent covered missing or detained civilians; and 12 percent covered veterans, according to the Commissioner's 2022 report.

Those numbers show the kinds of cases the new office will inherit. Many involve complex, difficult issues — like prisoners of war who lack medical care.

Built-in Risks to Watch

When a president appoints an ombudsman and can remove them, there's a structural risk. That ombudsman might face pressure — either real or imagined — to avoid criticizing the military leadership, since the president has ultimate control. The requirement to report to parliament provides some protection, but parliament's power to act on those reports can be limited, especially during wartime when emergency rules apply.

There's another practical difficulty. The office covers resistance fighters in territories occupied by Russia, where Ukrainian government authority is weak or absent. Investigating complaints from people in occupied zones will be extremely hard. The office will likely need to partner with aid organizations and speak with people who've fled those areas to gather information.

The military has also expanded greatly since the war began. Many civilians were drafted or joined as reservists and territorial defense members. These people often don't know how military administration works or what rights they have. Whether this new office can actually reach and help these people — not just professional soldiers — will test whether it's truly serving everyone it's supposed to.

What Happens Next

The first annual report, due by March 30th, will reveal how serious and capable this office actually is. The report's depth, the range of problems it covers, and the specific suggestions it makes to military leadership will show whether this becomes a real force for improving how the military operates, or whether it remains mainly a well-intentioned idea on paper.

International defense and human rights observers are watching how Ukraine builds this kind of accountability system while fighting for survival. The results could offer lessons — good or cautionary — for other countries trying to protect their citizens' rights during war.