American experience of the "From Troops to Teachers" programme can be adapted in Ukraine - an exclusive interview with Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine Andrii Kononenko for Interfax-Ukraine

Prior to his appointment as Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine on 15 April 2024, Andrii Kononenko had been working for more than 25 years in operational, analytical and managerial positions in the security and foreign intelligence services of Ukraine. Currently, he coordinates the information and analytical support of foreign policy, economic, social and other areas of national security.

During the conversation with Andrii Kononenko, the journalists of the Interfax-Ukraine agency touched upon various pressing issues. Among them are forecasting and coordination, interaction with international partners, current problems of rehabilitation of the military, the benefits of distributed generation, etc.

Mr Andrii, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, when he represented NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Lytvynenko, set a number of urgent tasks, some of which, as far as I understand, now fall under your responsibility. In this regard, do you see the need for any new approaches to organising work and, if so, what kind of approaches?

First of all, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to talk to your readers. I confess that this is my first experience of this kind.

As for your question. The functions of the National Security and Defence Council are clearly defined, and we act within a certain legal framework. At the same time, when the Head of State set a task to strengthen Ukraine's capabilities in forecasting, on which national security depends, a number of important functions need to be activated.

The NSDC Secretary outlined a number of urgent steps.

Firstly, it is to strengthen the coordinating role of the Office, which is related to the need to maximise the synchronisation of the activities of the authorities in implementing the decisions of the Security Council and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff. Scattered efforts often become an obstacle to the implementation of vital tasks.

Second, it is the maximum use of additional analytical capabilities, both internal and external. To this end, we are forming and actively cooperating with a pool of national and foreign experts. And I must tell you that the research conducted by Ukrainian think tanks is often unique in terms of the depth of analysis and complexity of conclusions. They are of great help to us.

So, I am now able to make the most of my experience as the head of analytical departments.

During a full-scale war, the assistance of our Western partners is one of the key components of successful counteraction to the enemy. As Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, you are responsible, inter alia, for international affairs. What level of contacts do you maintain and what is their practical content in terms of Ukraine's national security interests?

As for the international track of our activity, it is carried out, of course, within the powers of the NSDC Office.

In this regard, our main contacts are with leading American, European and other think tanks. We exchange assessments, forecasts, and scenarios for the development of events. Our international partners provide us with the opportunity to test the conclusions and assumptions of our analytical developments with the involvement of the best experts in the relevant fields.

All of this, in turn, has an impact and forms the basis for making management decisions in the defence, military, economic and other areas of public administration.

We have to understand that the demand for Ukrainian analytics has increased significantly in almost all security spheres. Our research, which we share and discuss on various international expert platforms, is used to make important decisions. For example, decisions on various kinds of assistance, support for Ukraine's position at the UN level, as well as at the level of governments or parliaments.

Before the start of the russian-Ukrainian war, we could not even imagine how many wounded and traumatised soldiers would be in Ukraine, and how many would need medical and psychological rehabilitation. Now we see what obstacles our soldiers who have been injured or disabled face when returning to civilian life. What role can the NSDC play in the rehabilitation of servicemen and servicewomen?

Today, Ukraine has all the prerequisites to become the country with the largest number of veterans in the world after the Second World War. This figure may reach one million people. And these are not the final figures. We need to think and act now to meet the needs for rehabilitation, and solutions can only be comprehensive.

Thus, there is a decision of the NSDC dated 14 May 2021 "On the Human Development Strategy", which, in particular, sets an operational goal to provide war veterans and their families with services for professional adaptation and psychological rehabilitation of veterans.

What does this mean in practice? First and foremost, it means updating the existing rehabilitation system to take into account all the new circumstances of the war. This entails changes in personnel policy, infrastructure, and, finally, proper funding... In addition, we should take into account international experience, in particular the policy measures taken in different countries to address the problems of veterans after wars or other military conflicts.

This work is already underway and has accelerated significantly since the start of the full-scale war.

You mentioned the creation of an updated system of rehabilitation for the military. What, in your opinion, are the most pressing problems and obstacles in this process? And how can they be overcome?

I would like to emphasise that the NSDC Office performs the function of coordination and control. The relevant ministries and departments deal directly with the rehabilitation of the military, but we are certainly immersed in this issue and keep in touch with all the actors involved.

Sadly, we have had some problematic experience with the organisation of so-called rehabilitation routes for servicemen and servicewomen, including those with spinal cord injuries. And this is just one example... What to do? Today, our specialists are actively studying the experience of Israel in the system of physical and psychological rehabilitation. The Israelis have learnt to work with patients from the moment they are injured. And when such a patient comes to a medical facility, they are treated comprehensively - by a rehabilitation therapist, a prosthetist, if there is a need, a surgeon, a therapist...

How can we implement this approach in Ukraine? Firstly, a system of rehabilitation departments should be built on the basis of a capable network of medical institutions. This will allow each cluster and supercluster hospital to have its own non-specialised inpatient rehabilitation unit with a sufficient number of beds for patients with injuries and wounds who need active recovery.

We are talking about physical and psychological rehabilitation. What about social protection of servicemen and servicewomen? Their employment after returning home? What steps should we expect from the state in the short term? And what support is needed from society and business?

We all understand that mobilisation, hostilities and forced migration have caused a shortage in the labour market. For example, we are already facing a shortage of teaching staff or insufficient or low qualifications of those who have remained. This issue is particularly acute in the de-occupied territories of Kharkiv and Kherson regions. The situation with doctors is similar...

Where is the solution? We need to adapt the experience of foreign countries to our realities, as I mentioned earlier.

For example, the United Kingdom. Back in 1943, experts pointed out that after the war, the country would lack about 70,000 teachers. To avoid this problem for men and women discharged from military service, the British government introduced a special emergency training programme with its own training colleges and intensive teaching. As a result, about 17,000 former military personnel became teachers of mathematics, English, geography, history, and labour... A similar programme called "From Troops to Teachers" has been running in the United States since 1994. At that time, 16,000 American servicemen and servicewomen were trained as school teachers.

I am sure that this experience can be applied to current servicemen and servicewomen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Another area of your responsibility is energy. The shortage of electricity is a hot topic. Each of us has experienced the lack of electricity in our homes... And it's not even winter yet... What can Ukrainians expect? What needs to be done to create distributed generation in the country?

It will be difficult, but we will get through the winter. Today, as we know, there is large-scale damage to the power system. How can we strengthen energy resilience? First of all, by creating distributed generation.

It is clear that the damage to a large number of relatively low-capacity power plants and facilities is a much more difficult task than the destruction of large thermal power plants and hydroelectric power plants. Therefore, on 18 July 2024, the Government approved the decision to develop distributed generation for the period up to 2035 and approved the Operational Plan. And this plan is not without its challenges, but it is moving towards its goal.

The regions are intensively preparing for the autumn and winter period. In particular, local programmes are being introduced to support the installation of solar generation and energy storage facilities of housing co-ops. In this regard, we have great hope for the well-known Ukrainian entrepreneurship and initiative.

In addition to the adopted Strategy, are there any other real steps to help, for example, local communities to prepare the energy system for winter tests?

Simplification and speed are the key to helping local authorities and territorial communities.

For example, a number of resolutions were adopted in a timely and efficient manner to simplify the procedure for connecting generation facilities to the electricity distribution system. To this end, the timeframe for issuing and approving technical specifications was shortened, the procedure for connecting to gas distribution systems and generating facilities to power grids was simplified, etc.

In addition, individuals are granted a loan of up to UAH 480 thousand for up to 10 years at 0% per annum for the purchase and installation of photovoltaic modules or wind power plants.

Of course, there is a lot of work to be done in this direction, but what is important is that it is already underway, and I am deeply convinced that the war, paradoxically, gives us a good chance to get rid of the outdated soviet energy system and build a new and modern one. I am sure we will do it.