Fighting their way to the front A Kremlin-backed foundation provides war veterans with electric wheelchairs and housing. Orphans and people with disabilities are left to fend for themselves.
Since its founding by presidential decree in 2023, Russia’s Defenders of the Fatherland foundation has received tens of billions of rubles to support veterans of the war against Ukraine and their families. Its regional offices help returning soldiers access housing, medical care, and other benefits. Meanwhile, ordinary Russians — including orphans, people with disabilities, and the seriously ill — often face years of waiting for benefits they’re legally entitled to, or are left to fend for themselves. The outlet 7×7 looked into what Defenders of the Fatherland is doing in the Sverdlovsk region to see how the state solves problems for veterans while people in need spend years on waitlists. Meduza shares some of the cases they found.
Veterans get homes, orphans get in line
When Sergey Zudov returned to Russia from the war in Ukraine, a representative from the state-backed Defenders of the Fatherland foundation helped him secure his veteran status and then apply for social housing. In addition to free apartments, Russian soldiers are eligible for a range of other benefits.
In the Sverdlovsk region, for example, a “special military operation veteran” can receive a one-time regional payment of 200,000 rubles (roughly $2,500) to purchase a plot of land. But the benefit is limited to service members who have received at least one of Russia’s highest state honors — such as the Order for Merit to the Fatherland or the Order of St. Andrew. The families of fallen soldiers also qualify. In April 2025, the head of Sverdlovsk’s Defenders of the Fatherland branch proposed extending these payments to all veterans who have received any state medal.
In Russia, many groups are eligible for state housing — but the demand far exceeds supply. Among those waiting are children who have aged out of the orphanage system. Across the country, more than 187,500 orphans are without permanent housing. Human rights activist Alexey Golovan, who heads the charitable center Sharing in Fate (Souchastie v Sudbe in Russian), says the average wait time for an apartment is seven years or more. In some regions, it stretches to 12 or even 14 years.
In Yekaterinburg alone, 1,800 orphans are currently on the housing waitlist. In other cities and towns across the region, another 6,700 are waiting. In 2025, just 1,200 of them are expected to receive apartments.
One reason orphans wait so long, Golovan explains, is that the housing program is chronically underfunded. On average, the federal government allocates only 10 billion rubles (about $125 million) annually to the regions for housing support. Local governments are then required to contribute additional funds from their own budgets.
In Sverdlovsk, despite a 20-percent increase to the regional housing budget in 2024 — to 3.27 billion rubles (about $41 million) — the funding was still only enough to provide housing for 1,200 orphans.
Wheelchairs for soldiers, scraps for the rest
Many Russian soldiers return from the war in Ukraine with serious injuries, including some no longer able to walk on their own. 7×7 found at least nine posts on VKontakte in which the Sverdlovsk branch of the Defenders of the Fatherland foundation described how it helped veterans obtain wheelchairs. In some cases, coordinators purchased high-performance or electric-powered models. The foundation has also given veterans cars outfitted with hand controls.
Foundation staff often assist families in adapting their homes for disabled relatives returning from the front. In Nizhny Tagil, for example, the foundation partnered with local authorities to install an outdoor ramp at one veteran’s home. The organization also helped the family purchase a hospital bed, wheelchair, lifting equipment, a remodeled bathroom, and a smart-home system.
Civilians, by contrast, often have to turn to private charities for help, as the state fails to meet their needs. Many families cannot afford medical equipment, wheelchairs, or even essential medications. These situations affect not only adults but also families with young children.
In Irbit, a town in the Sverdlovsk region, the local branch of the Social Fund of Russia failed in 2024 to provide a wheelchair for a 12-year-old with a disability. The child’s parents were forced to take the matter to the prosecutor’s office to obtain basic mobility assistance.
In Nevyansk, another town in the region, a local resident died before authorities fulfilled a long-standing request to install a ramp at his apartment building. The town only allocated funds to renovate the building entrance two years after his death.
In Yekaterinburg, a woman named Olga needed to raise 150,000 rubles (about $1,900) for medical tests her son urgently required — tests she said could mean the difference between life and death. She turned to Alexey Vikharev, a city council deputy from the ruling United Russia party. He replied that he couldn’t help — he had already donated his personal funds “to support the special military operation.” Vikharev declined to contact the Health Ministry or local hospital on her behalf. A State Duma deputy also ignored appeals. The only help came from the non-governmental Roizman Foundation, which a court ordered liquidated at the Justice Ministry’s request in April 2025. Olga will now have to look elsewhere for money to cover future tests.
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