Taking the soldier's case to the control committee: - Very seriously
In the summer and autumn, the government stopped the collection of wounded Ukrainian soldiers for two and a half months. Now the head of the Storting's control committee, Peter Frølich (H), announces that they will look into the matter.
Published: 12.10.22 at 18:01 Updated: 12.10.22 at 18:26
VG was able to reveal on Tuesday that the government stopped making offers to bring wounded Ukrainian soldiers to Norway this summer.
The background was that on 5 July Ukraine demanded that Norway guarantee that the soldiers received free treatment .
While the government investigated the decision, there was a complete standstill in soldier retrieval. Norway first responded to Ukraine after almost two and a half months, on 15 September.
- It is very serious, says Venstre deputy leader Sveinung Rotevatn to VG.
- I understand that the government has no good justification for this either, beyond the fact that they apologize that it has been bureaucratic and has taken a lot of time. It is obviously not good enough, he says.
Health Minister Ingvild Kjerkol (Ap) took self-criticism on Tuesday that the ministry has taken a long time - and says that they are going through their routines. She repeated this to VG on Wednesday evening:
- As I have previously replied to VG, I agree with the criticism that the government took too long to answer Ukraine's questions related to deductibles for healthcare services in Norway for Ukrainian soldiers. We have gone through the routines, and made several changes to ensure the necessary priority and progress for such cases in the future, Kjerkol writes in an email.
But she denies that Ukrainian soldiers were left without treatment during this period:
- At the time when Norway did not submit offers to accept wounded soldiers, we accepted civilian patients. In addition, Norway transported wounded soldiers to other countries during this period using the Norwegian Armed Forces' agreement with SAS. There were thus no wounded soldiers who were not offered treatment during this period, she adds.