Kyiv, September 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Wounded soldiers of the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) that need prosthetics have to turn to volunteers and receive prosthetic care abroad because of the highly bureaucratized system for providing disabled persons with prosthetics at the cost of state budget in Ukraine, public activist, founder of PIDMOGA.INFO project Oleksiy Krasnoschokov said at a press conference in Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Wednesday.

According to him, despite the fact that the state allocates money to provide prosthetic care for ATO participants, volunteers send the wounded abroad to receive needed care.

"This is because the state mechanism doesn't work the way it should," activist said.

According to him, operational lifetime of the prosthetics is too high in Ukraine.

Krasnoschokov noted that according to the decree by the Ukrainian Research Institute of Prosthetics, Prosthetic Engineering and Vocational Rehabilitation, prosthetics that disabled persons receive at the cost of the state budget are used for four and a half years. At the same time, the manufacturers guarantee only three years of work.

Besides, Krasnoschokov complained of complicated bureaucratic procedure for receiving prosthetics from the state budget.

According to him, this procedure is made more complex by the fact that most ATO participants don't have the status of a combatant that foresees providing the wounded with prosthetics.

The price for prosthetics stated in the budget is considerably lower than their actual cost. Moreover, a disabled person who wants to pay for a part of the actual price that is not covered by the budget can't do so, as partial payment isn't possible.

"One either pays the whole price with his own money (that's why they turn to volunteers), or accepts what one is given. And it's not important whether you can use it or not," he said.

In turn, consultant at Ukrainian Rehabilitation Centre for Afghan War Veterans Oleksandr Morozov said that "[social policy] ministry officials, particularly those of Social Security Department... Kharkiv Research And Development Institute, and Ukrprotez [company] have created a club, in which interests of the officials occupy the first place in the system for providing disabled persons with prosthetics."

In addition, he added that this issue could be solved by firing a number of officials at the above-mentioned organizations and creating a commission under the Social Policy Ministry for public activists and officials to jointly develop an accessible mechanism for providing disabled persons with prosthetics.