After more than four years of determined defense against Russia, the Ukrainian army needs reform. The country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, announced that it will begin in June and will include phased demobilization and a significant increase in the salaries of those fighting on the front lines.
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Zelensky added that he expects the changes to start being noticeable in June itself, “especially regarding financial support for soldiers, sergeants, and commanders of the Ukrainian Defense Forces,” he added.
The minimum salary for military personnel in the rear must be 30,000 hryvnias (currently just over 21,000, or 405 euros); and for commanders, combat sergeants, and officers, “a decent and significantly higher pay level.” Currently, the latter receive between 25,000 and 30,000 hryvnias, according to the digital newspaper Straná.ua published this Friday.
“Without food for 17 days” on the battlefield front
There must also be special contracts for infantry soldiers, “with pay ranging from 250,000-400,000 hryvnias” (4,800-7,700 euros), depending on the missions. Now a Ukrainian soldier in combat can earn up to 100,000 hryvnias if they spend the entire month on the front line, Straná.ua indicates.
The reform will also have to strengthen the contract system to guarantee a fixed service duration and the possibility, starting this year, of gradually discharging mobilized personnel. Current legislation does not allow demobilization unless martial law is suspended, which has been in effect since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his army against Ukraine in February 2022.
Zelensky’s announcement comes just one day after images of malnourished Ukrainian soldiers fighting on the Kupiansk front (Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine) were released.
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The wife of one of them, Anastasiia Silchuk, posted the photos on the social network Threads and caused a deep impact in Ukraine. The men are in an obvious state of malnutrition. “When the guys arrived at the front, they weighed more than 80-90 kg. But now they weigh around 50 kg,” Silchuk posted. They were forced to drink rainwater and melted snow to survive, and were “without food for up to 17 days,” the woman criticized.
From motivation to defend the country to chronic personnel shortage
When the war began, Ukraine’s recruitment offices were filled with volunteers to defend their country. But after more than four years of exhausting defense and tens of thousands of deaths, that motivation has been declining. According to statistical data from the General Prosecutor’s Office, cited by the newspaper Ukraínkskaya Pravda in March, in the first three and a half years of war Ukraine opened more than 230,000 criminal cases against soldiers who were absent without leave.
Almost all new recruits who join the army do so through mobilization, a system that many Ukrainians consider unfair, corrupt, and ineffective.
Straná.ru maintains that, with this chronic personnel shortage, it will only be possible to demobilize soldiers who have served for a long time if recruitment mobilization is tightened. To achieve this, this media outlet states that the government is studying measures such as canceling exemptions enjoyed by workers of companies considered of “special importance,” or lowering the mobilization age to 21 years, or even 18. It is currently 25 years.
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