Petition is not a ground for awarding the title of Hero of Ukraine – OP

Despite thousands of requests on the website for electronic petitions to award the title of Hero of Ukraine to a particular serviceman, the legislation defines a mechanism for applying for such an award, and the petition is not the basis. This was reported by the Presidential Office in response to an information request LIGA.net .

"An electronic petition is not a ground for awarding the title of Hero of Ukraine. According to Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine "On State Awards of Ukraine", statutes and regulations on state awards determine the grounds for awarding, as well as establish the awarding procedure and other rules," the response reads.

The Statute stipulates that the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Constitutional Court, the Office of the Prosecutor General, ministries and other central executive bodies, regional state administrations, and the Commission of State Awards and Heraldry under the President submit proposals for the award of the title of Hero of Ukraine to the President.

The bodies authorized to nominate for the title of Hero of Ukraine shall send to the President a nomination and an award letter of the established form.

The award letter shall indicate the specific merits of the person that gave rise to the request for the title.

As of mid-August, more than 10,000 petitions for the awarding of the Hero title were registered on the OP website.

At the same time, on October 7, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to 18 petitions at once, such as.

Zelensky was asked to posthumously award the title of Hero to Serhiy Bondar (72nd Brigade), Vitaliy Prysyazhnyuk (128th Brigade), Serhiy Kinzersky (57th Brigade), Ihor Yurchyshyn (93rd Brigade), Oleh Kliuyko (79th Brigade), Volodymyr Ponko (Azov), Serhiy Pryimachuk (Lyuty), and Roman Chobotko (State Border Guard Service), Andriy Tkachenko (80th Brigade), Dmytro Shcherbinin (79th Brigade), Yaroslav Bondarchuk (82nd Brigade), Andriy Khrapanov (46th Brigade), Oleksander Mokrynchuk (115th Brigade), Tymofiy Antoshchuk (Navy), Mykhailo Lompas (79th Brigade), Mykhailo Matiyiv (80th Brigade), Petro Ratushniak, Mykhailo Polevyi (68th Brigade).

In his answers, he emphasized that the preliminary review of the applications is carried out by an expert group established under the Commission of State Awards and Heraldry under the President.

Currently, the group includes representatives of the Ministry of Defense, the Office of the Chief of the Armed Forces, the General Staff, military commands, individual branches of the armed forces, and other military and security structures.

In his answers, Zelenskyy also emphasized that this or that military had already received awards after being reviewed by the relevant expert group – the military, who were mentioned in the petitions, received the Order for Courage, medals "For Military Service to Ukraine"/"Defender of the Fatherland".

• on October 1, Zelenskyy awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to 11 servicemen, four of them posthumously.
• On the same day, former Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy was posthumously awarded the title of Hero for outstanding personal services in the establishment of independent Ukraine and strengthening its statehood, and for many years of political and public activity.