Next year, the salaries of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will remain at the current level, but given inflation, the real income of the military may decrease. This was stated in the Verkhovna Rada.
Mykhailo Tsymbalyuk, a member of the Batkivshchyna faction, explained that rising inflation and prices would have a negative impact on the real salaries of Ukraine’s defenders. Funds for the military come exclusively from the state budget, which is formed by taxes, while financial assistance from international partners is used only for social needs and cannot be directed to the army.
According to preliminary estimates, a soldier’s monthly salary is 22,000 hryvnias.
Tsymbalyuk also noted that MPs managed to reallocate budget funds in favour of defence, as the Cabinet of Ministers initially proposed to allocate UAH 42 billion for road repairs, but defence spending remained a priority. There are no plans to increase salaries, and in the face of inflation, servicemen will actually receive less due to the rise in the cost of goods and services.
‘If we take into account inflation, if we take into account the rise in consumer prices, the military will receive less next year than this year, which is unacceptable,’ the MP stressed.
Financial assistance from international partners is used to pay salaries to public sector employees, including doctors and teachers, as well as pensions. The budget sets the subsistence minimum at UAH 2,900 and the minimum pension at UAH 2,300.
‘It is a shame for everyone that the country has such a pension, because it is not a living wage for pensioners, it is not even survival. That‘s why we are now fighting and talking to the Cabinet of Ministers to at least raise it to 5,000 and name the sources where this money can be taken,’ assured Mykhailo Tsymbalyuk.
