Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Can Ukraine afford to keep paying its soldiers a fighting salary?

A soldier from a Ukrainian assault brigade in Bakhmut (Credit: Getty images)

What salary should a soldier receive in a war-torn country? Obviously, there is no number that can make up for the sacrifice Ukrainians make on the frontline. But a proper salary is still necessary. When Russia invaded last year, Volodymyr Zelensky increased the payment for the military to seven times of the average salary in Ukraine. ‘We will pay 100,000 hryvnias (£2,200) monthly to military personnel who hold weapons… so that they know that the country is grateful to them. And so it will be until this war ends,’ Zelensky said. The war, as it has turned out, is well into its second year – and the Ukrainian President is faced with the costs.

In peacetime, Zelensky would have been called a populist by offering cash that he doesn’t really have. Before the full-scale invasion, the average Ukrainian soldier was paid about the national average: 14,000 hryvnias (£300) a month. A sevenfold jump was not affordable on a sustainable basis.

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