Mission to return: how iron & steel companies promote the adaptation of veterans

Currently, there are 1.2 million registered veterans in Ukraine, and after the war is over, including family members, their number will increase to 5-6 million, according to the Ministry of Veterans Affairs. Ukrainian businesses have not only employees who joined the ranks of the Defense Forces at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, but also veterans who have been working there since 2014. So the issue of returning former military personnel to social and professional life is a particularly acute one.

A large-scale task

As of the beginning of 2025, the number of employees mobilized to the Defense Forces from four major domestic iron & steel companies was as follows:

• Metinvest – more than 8,000 (including those from associates and joint ventures)
• Ferrexpo – 700,
• Interpipe – 1000,
• ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih – 2945.

More than 1,800 veterans have already returned to work at these companies after serving in the military since the start of the full-scale invasion.

In the context of a prolonged war, Ukrainian businesses, together with their employees, are actually going through the process of mobilization to return, supporting the families of the military, the dead, prisoners and missing persons. And since the full-scale invasion, the adaptation of former military personnel to professional and civilian life has become an integral part of corporate culture, and iron & steel companies are at the forefront of this work.

The programs offered by the industry’s companies include a wide range of assistance, from medical care and psychological support to reintegration into professional life and appropriate preparation of teams for the return of demobilized personnel.

Iron & steel companies started working in this area back in 2014, after the outbreak of hostilities in the east of the country, but since 2022, it has taken on a different scope.

Interpipe created a prototype of the current veterans’ reintegration program in 2015. Back then, its scope was limited to medical services at the corporate clinic and temporary psychological support. In 2014, 300 company employees were mobilized, most of whom remained in the Armed Forces on contract. However, with the start of the full-scale invasion, the situation changed dramatically and required a comprehensive approach. Currently, Interpipe has a corporate veterans’ reintegration program that covers several areas

• comprehensive medical care and physical rehabilitation,
• psycho-emotional support (individual counseling with a psychologist, family events, mentoring groups, veterans’ movement)
• selection of a workplace depending on the current physiological state
  legal support.

For Metinvest, this path also began in 2014, and since 2022, this work has become systematic. The company launched a large-scale program in October 2023. The Group has built a system to support veterans (both internal and external) and the families of Ukraine’s defenders. It is based on the principles of responsibility of managers at all levels, consistency, and internal fairness, and all business processes are adapted accordingly. Last year, the cost of reintegration programs (training, social adaptation, health insurance, support during service and mobilization, rehabilitation of children and rehabilitation of veterans themselves) amounted to $220 thousand, and more than $500 thousand is budgeted for 2025.

Tetyana Petruk, Director of Sustainable Development and Human Resources at Metinvest Group, explains that the company integrates work with veterans into various areas.

“We are open and ready to hire all veterans. After all, those who served in the Armed Forces and gained combat experience are valuable to teams due to their discipline, determination and ability to work in difficult conditions. Therefore, the reintegration of former military personnel is both a challenge and an opportunity for the company. This is our future and the path for every large Ukrainian business,” she said.

The war has been going on for eleven years for ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih as well. A broad, comprehensive program of social and psychological support and adaptation for combatants, their families, and family members of fallen defenders of Ukraine has been in place at the enterprise since 2023. The company focuses on several aspects of its work: medical and rehabilitation, information and administrative, etc.

Ferrexpo introduced its own veterans’ support program back in 2014. At that time, those returning from military service received psychological assistance and went on a health resort treatment with their families. The program was expanded in 2023. According to the company, it provides for a comprehensive approach and minimizes the number of problems faced by demobilized employees.

Difficult adaptation

Before the full-scale invasion, Oleg Spodin, one of the protagonists of Ferrexpo’s video project Stories of Veterans and Their Wives, worked as a surveyor in a quarry at a mining and processing plant in Horishni Plavni – he moved to the town after graduating from university. He found out that a full-scale war had begun while at work – he was just completing his internship as a dispatcher, and at 4 a.m. he heard someone say into the radio, “It’s started, guys.”

In May 2022, the man joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He fought as part of the 14th Separate Mechanized Brigade and was the commander of one of its units. Oleh received his third injury in 2023 near Kupiansk during the evacuation of soldiers. A piece of shrapnel hit him in the leg. Despite the doctors’ efforts to “reassemble” the knee joint, it had to be amputated.

After rehabilitation and prosthetics, Oleh returned to his home company. The man believes that veterans re-entering civilian life need respect from society, and not pity, but simple human warmth.

When building their adaptation systems, iron & steel companies study and take into account the main difficulties faced by those who have returned from war.

Last year, Metinvest, together with the Stalevy Charitable Foundation, conducted a national survey on topical issues of concern to veterans. These included health and medical care, administrative and legal services, childcare, and psychological health.

The same main problems with reintegration are also identified in other companies. At Interpipe, they note such an aspect as an acute need for respect and social justice, but the issue is mitigated by preparing the team and organizing support.

Problems in communicating with the team and manager upon return are also noted at ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih. In addition, when transferred to another job due to health restrictions, veterans often express a desire to stay in the shop from which they were mobilized.

Legal support is one of the ways companies help former military personnel. At Ferrexpo, the legal problems faced by veterans include applying for and obtaining combatant status, obtaining disability as a result of war, delays in passing the medical examination, and not receiving guaranteed compensation for injuries.

Taking care of health

The first line of assistance for iron & steel companies is to take care of veterans’ health and provide psychological and emotional support, as the military endured extreme physical and psychological stress during the war.

For example, Metinvest Group’s Health and Wellbeing area includes mental and physical health programs not only for veterans, mobilized employees and their families, but also for all employees, with some programs for external candidates from the labor market. Assistance in this area includes medical examinations of employees after demobilization, psycho-correction/stabilization courses for employees and job candidates, and individual consultations with a military psychologist for mobilized and demobilized employees. In addition, we are training first aid teams at our production facilities, which have already been established in Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia.

Over the three years of the full-scale invasion, the Metinvest Razom psychological support service has already provided more than 11.5 thousand consultations (investments in its work in 2022-2024 amounted to more than UAH 16.5 million, and in 2025, UAH 5.7 million will be allocated for the program). The company is also developing an expanded program of voluntary annual health insurance for demobilized veterans.

Every veteran who is employed by Interpipe after demobilization undergoes an in-depth medical examination, additional comprehensive examination as indicated, treatment and rehabilitation to the extent required. If necessary, on an individual basis, the military personnel receive the necessary consultations, medicines, tests, treatment (outpatient or day hospital) at the company’s corporate clinic or other medical facilities in the Dnipropetrovs’k region, and have the opportunity to undergo physical rehabilitation courses. They also have access to a psychologist and further support if necessary. There is also a health insurance program.

“If necessary, veterans undergo rehabilitation courses at RECOVERY, a network of rehabilitation centers for wounded soldiers created by Victor and Elena Pinchuk. There are three such centers in the Dnipro region, and 16 across the country. Each of them applies the latest evidence-based rehabilitation approaches, employs professional teams and has the latest equipment. Interpipe’s corporate patronage service has recorded numerous cases when, within 3-4 weeks, the military made significant progress in their physiological condition, entering the center in wheelchairs and leaving on their own legs,” said Lyudmila Novak, Interpipe’s Communications Director and curator of the corporate patronage service.

ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih has appointed a coordinating doctor for veterans, and a psychologist/therapist is screened as part of the medical examination at the company’s medical center. Veterans can seek psychological support from an in-house psychologist. AMKR’s medical center provides free medical and preventive services to employees who are at war, demobilized and their family members (except for children under 18).

The company also implements an additional health insurance program for veterans, including treatment and rehabilitation (the maximum amount of services is UAH 25 thousand per person in addition to the basic package of UAH 100 thousand). It also provides for offline psychological counseling, and in 2025, dental services were added. In addition, medical institutions are being selected for rehabilitation in Ukraine.

In 2024, Ferrexpo’s total expenditures on treatment and rehabilitation of veterans amounted to UAH 470 thousand. The comprehensive program of support for former military personnel includes a full medical examination, full physical and psychological rehabilitation.

Training of teams

The companies recognize that one of the most important aspects of reintegrating veterans is preparing their teams for their return.

In particular, Metinvest Group has three ongoing programs in this area:

• Heroes Next Door is a distance learning course that has been completed by more than 12.5 thousand employees. It helps managers and teams to better understand the experience of veterans, their psycho-emotional state, needs and difficulties.
• Leadership in Time of War is a program designed for managers responsible for the safety, productivity and well-being of employees, and in the current realities, for caring for veterans. The program has been completed by 1,025 managers.
• The course on interaction with veterans consists of short video lessons that are shown and discussed at meetings and broadcast via communication channels at enterprises. The program is also available to a wider audience on Metinvest’s social media.

Interpipe is preparing employees and managers to meet with demobilized soldiers. In particular, in early 2023, all top and middle management attended interactive lectures by military psychologists, which was the beginning of the development of a veterans’ reintegration system. Last year, a large meeting with veterans from all the company’s assets was held for the first time.

AMKR’s comprehensive program, among other things, involves informing managers of all levels and employees who directly communicate with veterans about the need to create a psychologically safe environment, forms of communication, etc. The company conducted training on the peculiarities of a person’s condition after returning from service, the role of the team and society in the rehabilitation of former military personnel, and mistakes in working with veterans.

Veteran communities

Along with training, iron & steel companies also practice creating veterans’ events and communities that serve not only to communicate but also to identify urgent needs and provide mentoring support to those who have returned from war.

Interpipe, for example, systematically holds mentoring meetings attended by veterans, coordinators, chief of staff, and managers. At these meetings, former military personnel raise problematic issues, put forward initiatives, and tell us what nuances they face. The main topic of discussion is the company’s own veteran policy. At one of the meetings, veterans suggested creating a general veteran chat. There, coordinators would promptly inform about changes in legislation, benefits, and invite them to various activities.

On the first anniversary of the #TitansUA project, Interpipe received the Veteran Friendly Business Award. The project aims to create a powerful veteran community to facilitate the physical, psychological, and social recovery of defenders.

Veterans’ communities and spaces are also being created at Metinvest’s enterprises. Veterans can get together in specially equipped rooms to socialize, get advice, hold meetings of their associations, etc. The Group has also become a partner in creating veterans’ communities in the cities where it operates, including the Oplich Hub in Zaporizhzhia.

Among other things, ArcelorMittal created the ArcelorMittal Veteran information channel to keep in touch with the coordinator. The company conducted interviews with former military personnel to identify the problems they face when returning to civilian life (they were enrolled in an adaptation program), and established cooperation with local veterans’ support agencies (I Am Veteran service center and Veteran service office). A Viber group was created to communicate with the families of the company’s employees who died defending Ukraine, to support them and share information.

Professional reintegration

One of the most important issues of veterans’ reintegration is their return to professional life.

According to Liudmyla Novak, industrial companies do not have simple solutions for reintegrating veterans with disabilities, as work in production involves both physical activity and possible triggers in the workshops.

According to her, in the case of Interpipe, workplace adaptation is not always possible. Instead, they work with each individual person to adapt the functional field, working conditions, schedule, and position to each veteran who is ready to return to work.

To do this, Lyudmyla Novak says, the company analyzes the veteran’s experience, skills, physical abilities, on the one hand, and production needs, on the other. At the intersection, they look for a new job, offer support and training. The company is gradually accumulating successful experience in this area and developing an approach, and the next step will be to shorten the preparatory stage and prepare alternative jobs in each division in advance.

For example, Ihor, an ultrasonic inspection technician, defended the country in the first days of the war. Due to the stressful conditions of service, his health problems worsened – he was hospitalized and underwent an urgent operation. Igor received a disability that prevented him from returning to his pre-war job at a wheel manufacturer and shift work. The solution was found by adapting his work tasks. Now the man works only in day shifts. During a business trip to Spain, he learned how to work with a new device and is now passing on his knowledge to his colleagues.

Metinvest has implemented retraining and qualification confirmation programs for all employees. The company offers retraining at its own expense for almost all working specialties, with 85% of such training provided on-site. Last year, the company implemented a pilot project at Zaporizhstal, focusing on acquiring practical skills directly at the production site, and in 2025, this experience will be scaled up to other enterprises of the group. Also in 2024, the Group began developing and updating corporate training programs, focusing on engaging internal experts.

Veterans who are unable to return to their previous jobs due to health reasons are now also taking part in these corporate programs. They can also enroll in Metinvest Polytechnic University on preferential terms. In 2024, 26 veterans – employees of the Group’s enterprises and defenders of Mariupol – started their bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the corporate university, and 20 former military personnel completed retraining programs last year.

In case of health restrictions, Ferrexpo adapts the workplace for a veteran to his or her capabilities. If this is not possible, retraining or admission to a university is offered at the company’s expense.

ArcelorMittal University in Ukraine is licensed to teach more than 350 working professions. The university is constantly improving the skills and retraining of workers. In addition, the university offers employees other ways to develop their skills. For example, an online English learning platform is available for all employees, regardless of their category. In addition, since 2024, an updated online learning platform has been in operation, providing access to a variety of courses and tools for developing soft skills, studying compliance policies, health and safety topics, etc.

Since 2014, iron & steel companies have been conducting veteran-friendly business. Currently, the work in this area has only intensified, with new programs and projects and increased funding. Thus, targeted work is carried out with each individual in several areas: medical and legal support, psychological and emotional recovery. One of the most important tasks is to find the right job.