The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has approved returning Hr 30,000 ($800) bonuses for soldiers "regardless of the tasks assigned to them or the areas of service," the lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko said on April 10.
After Russia's full-scale invasion started in 2022, Ukrainian soldiers, the Territorial Defense fighters, and police received an extra Hr 100,000 ($2,700) per month if they served in a designated active combat zone and an extra Hr 30,000 ($800) if they were stationed outside active combat areas. But in February 2023, the bonus system was changed, resulting in personnel who served outside an active combat zone getting no bonus at all.
According to Honcharenko, the Hr 30,000 bonuses were returned not only to the military but also to the State Emergency Service employees and police. Ukraine will make these payments until the end of the martial law in the country, the Member of Parliament said.
Later the same day, MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak said that according to the approved amendment, Ukraine plans to return the military bonuses by reducing salaries for civil servants and management of state-owned enterprises.
However, to return the allowances, the Ukrainian parliament will most likely need to change the state budget as reducing civil servants' pay to ten minimum salaries is "a tiny saving," according to Zhelezniak.
"Even 2% (cutback) of the planned expenses will not be enough. Let me remind you that we were spending Hr 2.7 billion daily on payments to the military. That's why I wouldn't say so unequivocally that it (the bonus) was returned," added the lawmaker.
Igor Kossov
