12:34 20.04.2018

Belgium and Ukraine cooperation in conflict conditions on Donbas

6 min read

The first three of the five Ukrainian servicemen who were injured during the fighting in eastern Ukraine on April 5, 2018 arrived at the hospital of Queen Astrid (the district of Brussels Neder-nad-Hembeyk) for rehabilitation and further treatment. This is not the only case of assistance from Belgium from the Belgian leadership. Military bilateral cooperation between countries with variable success continues since 2000.

In 2017, three soldiers of different generations were selected on the basis of inspections of chronic diseases, injuries and rehabilitation examinations carried out by Belgian military and non-military specialist doctors in the central military hospital of Kyiv. For Belgian observers, the age of servicemen is indicative. This is a reflection of the broad involvement of Ukrainian society in the armed conflict in the Donbass. Arriving on rehabilitation of the military, about fifty, forty and twenty years.

"It's not about emergency care, but about rehabilitation to restore their mobility," said the spokesman of the Belgian Defense Department captain-commander Olivier Severin. "We can not make any statements about the individuals and the medical situation of the three soldiers. They remain until the end of their treatment in Belgium, "- said a Belgian officer.

Immediately after the start of the war, four years ago, the Belgian Defense Minister, Stephen Vandeput (National Flemish Party NV-A), agreed to include Ukrainian soldiers with severe burns at the burning center of the military hospital. At that time, the Ukrainian government could not nominate candidates due to logistical problems and an uncertain crisis situation. Later it was decided.

Prolonged treatment and rehabilitation, proposed by the Belgian Ministry of Defense, began in 2017, not only for soldiers with burns, but also for those military who need careful rehabilitation of locomotor organs, psychiatric care and surgical treatment.

The three troops who arrived in April 2018 will be screened for the presence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with which the hospital has been in contact since March 22, 2016, when it assisted victims of terrorist acts at the national airport and at the Malbeik metro station, near the European headquarters-apartment in Brussels

It should be noted that military bilateral cooperation between Belgium and Ukraine began in 2000 with the cooperation agreement signed after the joint actions of the two countries in the Balkans. Belgian military attache, Major Rudy Warravens was appointed to Kyiv. However, the decision of President Yanukovych on "beyond the block status of Ukraine" led to the withdrawal of the Defense Attaché in 2010, as well as the majority of military diplomats from friendly countries from other EU countries. The cooperation programs in those years were carried out in the field of education (English language classes, meteorology and mine clearance at sea, the latter being conducted by the Belgian-Dutch school "Yegermin", recognized as a NATO expert center).

The diplomatic crisis after Russia's military intervention in Crimea in February 2014 and the beginning of an armed conflict in the Donbas, negatively affected the possibilities of bilateral cooperation. In 2014 and 2015, the main focus was on the planned participation of both countries in the activities of the NATO Response Force established in 2003 by the international group on land, air, sea and special forces that NATO can deploy for five days in any to which point of the world. For this, the Ukrainian unit should have been integrated into the Belgian corps. Various events were planned. However, Ukraine canceled its planned contribution to the NRF in November 2014, with the exception of the delivery of a transport aircraft. All related actions have been terminated.

From 2015, Ukraine received support from the Belgian Defense Ministry on the basis of the NATO Defense and Security Assistance (DCB) Initiative, in which NATO not only confirms its partnership principles, but also supports issues that are being addressed by the countries. with a greater and more high potential of defense: from strategic defense and security consultations to the establishment of reform institutes.

In the field of fostering cooperation not only for military but also for economic and humanitarian purposes, the Belgian Ministry of Defense, within the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), prepared a practical course on methods of combating insurgents and terrorist threats during a special observation mission of the OSCE's future observers with the use of homemade explosives in conditions of asymmetric warfare.

Since 2016, the Belgian Defense Ministry has conducted two-week medical training of ten Ukrainian servicemen for the treatment and rehabilitation of acute and chronic severe burns (and associated motor-induced disorders). Also, Ukrainians have been trained to provide emergency care in field conditions in case of damage to aviation hyperbaric ammunition. Acquainted with the method of treatment with bacteriophage.

It is worth mentioning that medicines obtained on the basis of phagotherapy at the Belgian Military Hospital have attracted interest from the largest drug manufacturers and private investors in Ukraine. The developed antibiotic MRSA was discovered and developed in the early days of the Soviet Union, and its effect is better known in Ukraine than in Belgium. But this does not prevent the Belgian universities of Louvins and Ghent to study these issues of resistant bacteria for further effective use. Bacterial strains of MRSA from Ukraine, from the Institute of Microbiology and Virology to them. Zabolotnogo National Academy of Sciences in Kiev and phages from Georgia, from the Institute of bacteriophages, microbiology and virology them. Eliava in Tbilisi is used in Belgium and also has pharmaceutical applications in Ukraine.

Luke Pisson, president of the non-profit association of the Belgian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Benelux Ukraine, who operates in Ukraine, says: "In all this, the military hospital in Brussels plays the first violin. It is therefore very unfortunate that it can not be explained that all the unique assets of the Military Hospital are intended not only for these five, but now three more this year, two more injured victims of the military conflict in the Donbas, but also for the Belgian military and many civilians , for which treatment at a military hospital is a final salvation when all other university and non-university hospitals fail. Ukraine should have the right to the same as Russia, and this should be clearly stated. Take, for example, the use of a bacteriophage. Laboratory and clinical scientists of the Military Hospital are world experts referring to, many specialists (even in Tbilisi). The diplomatic situation with Russia precludes an explanation of what makes a military hospital for the Ukrainian wounded good and for the improvement of the international health system. Belgian diplomacy lacks courage, does not want to cause irritation in Moscow, explaining what Belgium does for Ukraine. "

Luke Pisson also noted that the Benelux-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VZW), in cooperation with the League of Defense Enterprises of Ukraine and partner universities, invites interested Ukrainian participants from a number of enterprises producing military and dual-use products for the organization of educational trips and trainings in the Belgian industrial clusters and business networks of innovative modern companies, knowledge centers, government bodies and creative social communities.

 

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