Maryna Stavniichuk, Honored Lawyer of Ukraine, legal scholar, constitutional law expert
I recently read a shocking article published by Hromadske—one that leaves no room for silence.
The urn containing the ashes of 26-year-old veteran Mykhailo Aleksiievskyi remained unburied for a year and a half because the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center (TCC) refused to grant him military funeral honors and burial at the Alley of Glory. The reason was that his military unit had recorded him as unauthorized absence from service (SZCh) at a time when the severely wounded soldier, who had survived the horrors of the war and sustained life-threatening injuries near Vovchansk, was recovering after hospitalization in a Kyiv dormitory, where he ultimately died.
The system proved merciless: no certificate confirming that he was performing military duties at the time of death meant no military honors, no national flag on his coffin, and no dignified farewell. This is more than bureaucracy—it is a cruel and cynical sentence against the very idea of justice, punishing not the deceased soldier but his grieving family by depriving them of their right to honor his memory.
From a legal standpoint, this is not merely unfair—it constitutes a clear abuse of official authority. Denying burial in a military cemetery because of an SZCh record is unlawful. Article 23² of the Law of Ukraine "On Burial and Funeral Affairs" contains no such grounds for refusal. The law makes the decisive criterion the person's service in the defense of Ukraine and combat record—not the specific circumstances surrounding their death.
Nevertheless, officials at the local level act not in accordance with the Law or the Constitution of Ukraine—which, under Article 19, requires public authorities to act solely on the basis and within the limits established by law—but instead rely on internal bureaucratic instructions and unwritten administrative practices.
An SZCh record or a report filed by a military unit is not a court conviction. Denying military honors based on an unwritten departmental practice amounts to an extrajudicial posthumous punishment that is not provided for by any law or regulation.
This case also exposes a disgraceful double standard. For living soldiers who have gone AWOL, the Ukrainian state provides a legal opportunity to return to service without punitive consequences, recognizing the realities of combat exhaustion, trauma, and PTSD. In effect, the state says: "We still believe in you."
Yet the moment that same person dies, the system instantly switches to a presumption of guilt. A deceased soldier cannot defend himself. Moreover, such situations are often rooted in administrative disorder within military units themselves: commanders may verbally authorize a wounded serviceman to return home or continue medical treatment, only to file an SZCh report at the first inspection in order to shield themselves from responsibility by shifting the blame onto the soldier.
International practice demonstrates a fundamentally different level of respect for military service. In the United States, military funeral honors and eligibility for burial in national veterans' cemeteries are based primarily on veteran status. A service member may lose these honors only following a court-martial resulting in a Dishonorable Discharge for particularly serious offenses. Mere absence without leave (AWOL)—the closest U.S. equivalent to Ukraine's SZCh—without a corresponding judicial decision does not erase years of sacrifice and service to one's country.
International experience teaches an essential principle: the state must clearly distinguish between legal responsibility for misconduct and unconditional gratitude for defending the nation.
Ukraine urgently needs a fully functioning system of military justice and the restoration of military courts. Assessing a defender's conduct, weighing combat merits against alleged misconduct, and determining entitlement to veteran honors cannot be left to TCC administrators or civilian judges detached from the realities of war. Only a military court, acting as a professional and competent arbiter, should evaluate the actions of both the servicemember and the military command and determine where criminal liability ends and a soldier's legal status begins.
Ukraine also needs immediate legislative and executive action to end this abuse of the memory of its defenders.
Article 23² of the Law "On Burial and Funeral Affairs" should explicitly state that an SZCh record or pending criminal proceedings under Article 407 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, in the absence of a final court conviction, cannot serve as grounds for denying burial in a military cemetery. TCCs should be prohibited from issuing verbal refusals. Every decision must be made in writing, include clear legal reasoning, and be subject to an expedited review procedure within 24 to 48 hours.
The Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Veterans Affairs should immediately issue official guidance to all TCCs and local authorities clarifying that an SZCh record without a court conviction does not deprive a defender of the right to military funeral honors.
A state that cannot pay its final respects to its defenders because of bureaucratic paperwork ultimately loses the moral authority to ask the living to make the ultimate sacrifice.
