The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, announced this Friday an increase in remuneration in the Armed Forces, with special emphasis on infantry soldiers deployed on the front line, as well as "new opportunities" to continue incorporating foreign volunteers.
In recent days, Zelensky has met with members of his cabinet and the military leadership to outline this new program to improve the economic and labor conditions of the troops, largely linked to the EU's financial support package, amounting to 90 billion euros.
The leader stressed that the goal "is to increase the financial stability" of those serving in the Army and to advance in its transformation for the coming years, an issue that is also on Kyiv's agenda regarding security guarantees once the war, which has already lasted four and a half years, concludes.
"There are resources to increase payments in the Army," Zelensky emphasized in a message broadcast on his social networks, where he details some of these measures. Among them, he set a minimum of 30,000 hryvnias per month (580 euros) for personnel stationed in the rear and up to 300,000 hryvnias (about 5,800 euros) for combatants operating on the most exposed front.
"The more combat missions, the higher the salary level. There will be new, significantly stronger contracts for the infantry," he said. "Everything depends on the Ukrainian infantry, on our Ukrainian infantry," the head of state insisted.
As he explained, "payments for Ukrainian combat commanders will be increased, which should create a positive incentive to preserve management experience in the Army," while changes are introduced in the duration of contracts, which will be for 10, 14, or 24 months, with "guaranteed terms and real deferments."
Zelensky took the opportunity to acknowledge the work of "foreign volunteers" who have participated in the conflict, "understanding that this concerns the freedom of many other peoples."
"I have given instructions to open many more opportunities to attract foreign volunteers to the Ukrainian Army, and there will be more recruitment mechanisms in this regard," he added, without offering further details for now.
Furthermore, it has announced that procedures for transferring soldiers between units will be streamlined, opportunities for advancement and promotion within the Armed Forces will be expanded, and new incentives will be introduced to make enlistment more attractive.
The challenge of recruitment in the Ukrainian Army has been present almost since the beginning of the Russian invasion, more than four years ago. The Rada has promoted various proposals to try to make voluntary enlistment more attractive, in a context of growing social unrest and an increase in departures to other countries to evade military service.
It is estimated that around two million Ukrainians have managed to avoid recruitment. To address this situation, the Executive has launched several initiatives, ranging from asking its partners to restrict certain rights of Ukrainian citizens in host countries to force their return, to resorting to the prison population by offering them penitentiary benefits in exchange for serving on the front lines.
In recent dates, the Government has admitted "inhumane treatment" in the framework of the forced mobilization applied to reinforce the ranks of the Army, something that is reflected in videos disseminated on social networks where citizens of service age are seen being detained and transferred against their will to military training centers.