Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (Christoph Soeder, Pool Photo via AP)
Ukraine’s military has started to offer one-year contracts with generous bonuses to men under 25, in a bid to fix the country’s manpower deficit as Russian troops continue their advance.
The new contracts offer a combination of one-time and monthly payments amounting to as much as 2 million hryvnia ($48,000), according to a statement on the Defense Ministry website published Wednesday. That sum would take nearly ten years to earn for most in Ukraine, where the average monthly wage stands at nearly 20,000 hryvnia.
The new recruitment plan is a partial about-face from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who earlier resisted calls from allies such as the US, to draft younger troops to address a manpower deficit. It gives an incentive for younger men to volunteer for frontline brigades without changing a law which prohibits the Ukrainian authorities from drafting most men under 25.
Lowering the conscription age is also politically sensitive inside Ukraine. Kyiv is torn between the need to replenish exhausted military units and Ukrainian society’s growing fatigue in its fight against the vastly more numerous Russian army.
Earlier this week, Zelenskiy said that the state would help those who signed up to pay their mortgages.
“Zero interest rate, all interest payments will be covered by the state,” he said.
According to the Defense Ministry’s website and Telegram channel, additional perks include state-subsidized medical services, education, utilities and free use of public transportation. These young soldiers will also be allowed to pick where and in which role they want to serve, a longstanding grievance which has resulted in Ukrainian servicemen leaving their posts.
Yet the most unusual benefit on offer is certainty as to when military service will end. Most Ukrainian servicemen have no idea when they’ll be demobilized, leading to soldiers serving for lengthy periods given the lack of soldiers to replace them.
Unlike current conscripts, these younger soldiers would be given a year-long contract allowing them a waiver from any future draft for another year and the right to travel abroad after service — a rare privilege in Ukraine, where most men between 18 and 60 years of age cannot leave the country as long as the war drags on.
