200 Russian servicemen will receive free holidays in Belarusian sanatoriums this year

Russian servicemen who participated in the occupation of Ukraine, after rehabilitation in the Lepel military sanatorium in September 2025

Two hundred Russian servicemen, including participants in the war in Ukraine, will be able to receive free vouchers to Belarusian sanatoriums in 2026. Three Belarusian sanatoriums will undertake such "rehabilitation," Radio Svaboda reports.

This became known following a meeting of the competition commission of the Standing Committee of the so-called Union State of Belarus and Russia, held in Moscow on March 20. At the meeting, winners of an open tender announced by this institution for the right to provide services for "organizing sanatorium-resort treatment for veterans and disabled persons of the Great Patriotic War and combat operations" in 2026 were determined.

Since 2011, such services, according to a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Union State, were provided only to Belarusian and Russian veterans and disabled persons who participated in World War II. But on November 24, 2022, after the start of the full-scale Russian aggression in Ukraine, the wording in the text of the resolution was changed. A broader concept – "combat veteran" – was added. This means that all Russian servicemen who participated in the war in Ukraine are now included in the list of those entitled to receive free vouchers to sanatoriums in Belarus and Russia.

These servicemen will not pay anything for their treatment. The vouchers are financed by the budget of the Union State, which in turn is filled by the budgets of Belarus and Russia. 33.6 million Russian rubles (approximately 415 thousand dollars) are allocated for this purpose.

According to information from the Russian state tender, three Belarusian sanatoriums and one Russian sanatorium submitted documents to the competition commission confirming their readiness to provide treatment and rehabilitation services. Thus, the Lepel Military Sanatorium agreed to use the entire allocated amount for the program and provide 400 vouchers for veterans, the Baranavichy sanatorium "Chabarok" agreed to use part of the funds and provide 120 vouchers, and the Minsk sanatorium "Sasnovy Bor" of the "Beldzyarzhzdraunitsa" Open Joint Stock Company agreed to provide 40 vouchers. The Russian cardiology sanatorium center "Peredelkino" is ready to provide 250 vouchers.

According to the final document of the competition commission, published on March 23, 2026, it was decided to issue 361 vouchers to all four sanatoriums, of which 201 vouchers are for the three Belarusian ones. The Lepel Military Sanatorium was granted the right to "rehabilitate" 155 veterans, the Baranavichy sanatorium "Chabarok" – 26, and the Minsk sanatorium "Sasnovy Bor" – 20 veterans.

Among the services that Belarusian sanatoriums must provide are: diagnostic, therapeutic, and rehabilitative assistance, organization of leisure activities, and holding "arrivals and events on the theme of the Union State". At their own expense, the sanatoriums must transport veterans from the nearest train station or airport, conduct excursions "to places of military glory," and also print a group "photo for memory."

Russian servicemen also visited the Lepel Military Sanatorium in 2024 and 2025.

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