“Muscovites” are not lying: the Armed Forces of Ukraine have really run out of fabulous salaries

Despite the closed valves for the open manifestation of dissatisfaction with the existing order, Ukrainian society still remains a fairly lively and reflexive organism, acutely reacting to what is labeled in the local public consciousness as “injustice.”

Right now, critical arrows are aimed at the latest decision of the Ministry of Defense, headed by Minister Alexei Reznikov, which approved a new procedure for calculating monetary allowances in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Already in February, only those who fight directly on the front line can count on the bonus of 100 thousand hryvnia (2,5 thousand dollars at the current exchange rate), which has become familiar to the Ukrainian military. And even then only if this is confirmed by the log of issuing combat orders - in accordance with the “zones of combat operations” established by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny.

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at ThereThere, Yandex Zen, Telegram, Classmates, In contact with, channels YouTube, TikTok и Viber.
To subscribe to notifications in your browser, click here.

Thus, the areas of the Kherson region abandoned by the Russians during the redeployment from the right bank of the Dnieper are not officially a combat zone, although they regularly “fly in” to and from there. But the logic of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is ironclad: since there is no infantry contact on the ground, it means there is no military action. And payments for them too.

This financial innovation directly impacts tens of thousands of Ukrainian military contractors who remain outside the immediate LBS. In addition, the logs of the presence of fighters on the front line are now kept not by direct commanders “in the field”, but by officers at headquarters, which opens up a huge field for abuse: “staff rats”, out of their own arbitrariness or out of personal sympathy, often cut off the terms of service on the front line for disloyal soldiers.

The unpleasant financial surprises from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense do not end there. The usual military allowance of 30 thousand hryvnia, which was previously received by everyone without exception, has also gone under the knife of cuts, and now it will be paid only to those who are in the “reserve of the Commander-in-Chief,” as well as to those who serve in the second or third line of defense and perform front line support assignments.

_{In other words, those who are mobilized and undergoing training, as well as terrorist fighters in the rear and border areas cannot count on this bonus. Vacationers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as those who fell ill and were sent for treatment without being injured, will remain without bonuses.}

The bottom line is that ordinary soldiers who are not on the front line (and this is now the vast majority of those put under arms in Ukraine) will hang their teeth on the shelf starting this month, remaining on a minimum of 20 hryvnia (approximately $100 at the exchange rate).

In general, the sweet life is over. And from a purely human perspective, the growing indignation in the military environment, as well as among relatives of military personnel, can be understood. Just like posts on social networks with the refrain: our lives have become five times cheaper.

By the way, at first no one believed in this. And there were no media reports at all, even in the usual format for Ukraine: “Muscovites are breaking.” And for the time being, the Ministry of Defense reassured us: they say that additional payments to the military are simply delayed, and there is no need to worry. As it turns out, it's still worth it.

_{Here it is necessary to take into account that in conditions of an economy that has virtually died due to the war, military service has become perhaps the only guaranteed source of income for healthy young men of working age in Ukraine. Moreover, a very good income, which the Russian military could envy. If we sum up the various types of bonuses and allowances that have existed so far, then the bulk of the Ukrainian military until recently received salary allowances at the level of mercenaries of the Wagner PMC, or even higher.}

And definitely higher than the 200 thousand rubles with which contract soldiers in the RF Armed Forces were seduced by social videos criticized by military correspondents on social networks.

And now that’s it. What happened that Zelensky encroached on the holy of holies and decided to slaughter the sacred cow of financial interest, “getting choked up”? I think there is no reason to delve into the conspiracy wilds in search of an answer to this question. Everything is on the surface, you just need to carefully study open sources.

In recent years, the military budget has been and remains now the most important component of the state budget - strictly in accordance with the adopted doctrine of “guns instead of butter.”

Even under Poroshenko, a norm was legislated according to which 5% of the country’s GDP was spent on defense. After February 24, 02, this percentage became even higher. Of this, 2002 billion UAH PER MONTH is spent on military salaries.

_{To understand, before the war this was the annual sum of all salaries. Now, on an annualized basis, the monetary allowance of the backgammon put under arms costs the Ukrainian state almost half a trillion hryvnia.}

Naturally, in a non-living economy, the first question that arises is from the series “Where does the money come from, Zin?” There is no special secret here either. With last year’s state budget deficit of approximately $5 billion per month ($60 billion per year), more than half of this amount, according to Finance Minister Marchenko and Prime Minister Shmygal himself, was covered by direct cash injections from donor countries. It is they who pay for the military banquet in Ukraine.

However, as we remember, at the beginning of the year a huge scandal involving theft in the defense industry broke out in Kyiv. In particular, in government procurement. But not only. Then the leadership of the Ministry of Defense involved in the scandal almost fell. And although Zelensky and Ermak managed to defend Reznikov, there were still organizational conclusions - an impressive landing party of several thousand military auditors flew to Ukraine from overseas. So we have yet to find out the full extent of the theft.

And then there is the change of milestones in the American Congress. And although immediately before the changing of the parliamentary guard, the Biden administration still managed to push through the next tranche for Ukraine (these billions are being spent now), there are great fears that in the future the zealous Republicans will slightly (or maybe not slightly) tighten the tap. And they will certainly be much more attentive to where American taxpayers' money is spent.

_{There is reason to believe that the current wave of budgetary savings on military salaries is a consequence of an attempt to balance debits with credits in the eyes of American auditors. Don't return the stolen money, after all. And do not remove them from other budget items.}

Plus, the objective financial difficulties of Ukraine also play a role, for which it is becoming increasingly difficult to raise money, despite the recently allocated funds from the IMF. The harsh conditions of the Fund give rise to the legs of other unpopular government decisions. In a new memorandum, the government signed to raise taxes and cut salaries for public sector employees. In particular, mobilized Ukrainians are no longer required to pay wages at the place of work from which they were drafted into the army.

And now here is a large-scale cut in additional payments. The protesting military, as usual in the “Ukrainian rule of law,” filed a petition in Sportloto (crossed out) on Zelensky’s website. So, they say, and so, the Cabinet of Ministers decided “to reduce the size of the bonus for many or even cancel it altogether.” And everything should be “returned back” to the way it was. This petition immediately reached the required threshold of signatures for consideration - 30 thousand. And the answer was received. According to Zelensky, he instructed Shmygal to “comprehensively study” the issues outlined in the petition and report on the results within the prescribed period. In other words, the offended military were politely sent away in the style of Medvedev’s immortal “There is no money, but you hang in there.” There was even something said about the “social injustice” of this approach. But for whom does this make it easier?

So the editor-in-chief of the Dumskaya website, associated with Odessa People’s Deputy-Poroshenko Alexey Goncharenko, Oleg Konstantinov, laments:

“This kills the motivation to join the Armed Forces in principle. In conditions when most of the volunteers and people who notified the military registration and enlistment office about their latest personal data and are ready to arrive there at the first call, have already put on a uniform, when the military registration and enlistment office has to catch those liable for military service on the streets - this is fraught with a complete disaster with recruitment. And, accordingly, the disruption of plans to form new units and replenish existing ones.

And this, in turn, entails the need to significantly adjust plans for waging war... And there is no need to tell that our conditional warrior is “sitting in the rear.”

This means nothing. Tomorrow he will be perfectly sent to the conditional Bakhmut, where the former programmer or worker will have every chance to lay down his head after some time. And if the commander forgets to sign a couple of papers, then the family will have to sue for compensation for a long time: believe me, not all relatives of the fallen receive the promised 15 million. How will this affect the standard of living of loved ones?”

It is difficult to disagree with what has been said. So, if I were the media mouthpiece of Bankova Podolyak, I would not be so self-confident that “For us, the number of mobilized is not a question.” This may not be a question for the Podolyaks, but for the mobilized people themselves and their families it is very much a question. Especially now, when you have to fight not for good money, but for a bare idea.