Social entrepreneurship as a tool for economic reintegration of veterans: Ukrainian and international experience

The article examines social entrepreneurship as an effective legal and economic instrument for the post-war reintegration of veterans in modern society. The article examines the European and Anglo-Saxon approaches to understanding the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship, and concludes that both approaches agree that the goal of a social enterprise is social impact more important than profit maximisation. It is argued that economic reintegration involves the transformation of a veteran from a recipient of assistance into an active market participant who is able to provide for himself/herself and whose contribution to the economy is recognised by the state. The author reviews current Ukrainian legislation and draft laws on social entrepreneurship and veteran business. The article analyses the key challenges facing veteran initiatives in Ukraine, including limited access to finance, fragmented legal regulation, and lack of systemic support from the state and institutions. Based on the cases of social enterprises created by veterans in Ukraine (in particular, the Veterano Group network), the article identifies the social and legal prerequisites for their functioning and the legal barriers that hinder their development. The article presents a comparative legal analysis of international models of support for veteran entrepreneurship, in particular in the United States (SBA, VBOC, EBV), the United Kingdom (X-Forces Enterprise) and Israel (Restart, Innovation Authority), which demonstrate the practical effectiveness of legislatively enshrined mechanisms for stimulating social enterprises. The author substantiates the need to create a special legal regime for social enterprises with a veteran component in Ukraine and proposes a set of institutional solutions: launching incubation programmes, preferential taxation, targeted financing, mentoring and educational support. Based on the results of the study, the author concludes that social entrepreneurship has the potential to become not only a tool for social adaptation, but also a factor of sustainable economic development and cohesion of Ukrainian society in the context of post-war transformation.