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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
In September the Armed Forces were already feeling difficulties with paying monetary allowances. According to LB.ua sources, some units experienced problems with bonuses and rewards. Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyy recently said that the government will literally be scrounging for money for the military in the coming months. He said the situation changes daily and the government is working to optimize spending, seeking new funding sources and reallocating existing ones.
“We will definitely cover this. I guarantee everything will be fully stable,” Koretskyy said about service members’ monetary allowances.
But why are these discussions happening at all, why are bonuses delayed, and why aren’t base salaries—which have long been “morally outdated” and probably wouldn’t even motivate a retiree to take a janitor job—being revised or likely raised? The needs of the Armed Forces, as the prime minister put it, are a priority. But the government and the Verkhovna Rada must prove that priority in practice.
What the situation is now and why it arose
“The budget doesn’t have funds for military salaries even two months ahead,” Vadym Ivchenko, a People’s Deputy from the Batkivshchyna faction, said in mid-September on the Novyny.live channel. “We don’t have two months’ salaries, even up to 20 thousand, at all. We have a budget catastrophe. Right now we’re spending money that was planned for the last months of the year,” the politician said.
Kyiv has already asked EU partners to speed up disbursement of part of the bloc’s credit package worth 90 billion euros that was intended for next year. But the EU rejected Ukraine’s request to accelerate payment of part of the loan from the overall package of 90 billion euros: only according to schedule, Bloomberg reports, citing informed sources.
And that is bad news. “Budget amendments and partner assistance are needed at least to close the hole. I’m not even talking about raises,” Ivchenko said.
Member of the Verkhovna Rada’s Defense Committee Vadym Ivchenko
The base monthly monetary allowance for a platoon commander is 26 259 hryvnias, for a company commander — 31 224 hryvnias, for a battalion commander — 36 481 hryvnias. A furniture factory laborer’s salary is 60–100 thousand hryvnias with reserved employment. What will a man in the rear choose if he still hasn’t been mobilized, and where are the “fair payments” here?
Realizing changes were needed, in 2026 the government went the route of targeted top-ups. In particular, it increased certain combat and rear bonuses and introduced incentives for new contract soldiers. Since June, additional 10 thousand hryvnias have been provided for non-combat and rear positions, with a minimum total payment of 30 thousand. At the same time, base positional salaries and rank pay did not change.
But there wasn’t enough money even for the old payment system. In May–June the government estimated the deficit at about 150 billion, and the new top-up system required another 100 billion. The Ministry of Defense managed to find about 60 billion through audits and spending cuts, but that was enough only for the first stage of the reform.
At the same time the government spent money so freely that it proposed, for example, taking 40 billion from the MoD’s armament program and transferring it to the reserve fund. Meanwhile the state spent significant sums on the “winter thousand,” cashbacks, payments of 1500 hryvnias, the telethon, and other programs. Back in March, People’s Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak estimated the total cost of six government programs at 59 billion, of which 18 billion went to the “winter thousand” and another 20 to payments of one and a half thousand.
Meeting of Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyy with the Ministry of Defense
And already at the beginning of September the Cabinet’s website reported that the government was directing 33,6 billion hryvnias to payments for servicemembers and their family members. The funds were taken from the reserve allocated for the security and defense sector to timely provide the necessary payments in September, Koretskyy explained. 25,9 billion hryvnias of that sum are for monthly monetary allowances of service members in September.
In the first half of the year, state budget expenditures totaled 2 trillion 832 billion hryvnias, of which 670,7 billion were expenditures on payments to the military. According to the Accounting Chamber’s estimate, the actual need for expenditures on service members’ monetary allowances through the end of the year is 265 billion higher than the planned amount for 2026 year.
Despite the government’s attempts to balance and plug holes, the military already felt interruptions with money. “I communicate with the front constantly and informally received several complaints about non-payments,” says Yuriy Hudymenko, a veteran and member of the Public Anti-Corruption Council at the MoD. “As far as I know, most of these people later did receive the money.” LB.ua’s conversations with individual service members confirm this.
It’s strange that there were problems with additional payments at all; likely they are still targeted, says Hlib Vyshlinskyy, executive director of the Center for Economic Strategy. According to National Bank statistics, the Treasury account of the Ministry of Finance held 470 billion hryvnias at the end of August. “It should have been enough. There was no need to withhold monetary allowances and combat bonuses (delay them expecting that money would arrive in, say, two weeks), but anything can happen,” the economist muses.
Director of the Center for Economic Strategy Hlib Vyshlinskyy
Money will have to be raised
Our financial capacity is indeed limited: own revenues cover only about 40% of total need, the state expects to get the rest through borrowing and international aid. The defense budget deficit is 27 billion dollars. Serhiy Koretskyy voiced this figure recently. 7 billion dollars the government has already found by reallocating funds and cutting spending on roads, resilience programs and culture. Priorities will still have to be set.
The sum of 27 billion was announced without public detail on exactly what MoD needs it for, Vyshlinskyy explains. Primarily the money is needed to sign contracts for weapons supplies in the first quarter of next year. “To be able to fight, weapons procurement must be financed now,” the economist says.
In the defense budget, expenditures for those procurements and for service members’ pay are closely intertwined. “For several years in a row we’ve taken money from the third–fourth quarter to pay for armaments at the beginning of the year because money is chronically lacking,” says Yuriy Hudymenko. “This is standard practice and such level decisions are agreed at the president and Cabinet level.”
Yuriy Hudymenko, Armed Forces servicemember and public political figure
So at the start of this year the MoD bought weapons with money earmarked for salaries. That put monetary allowances at risk, Vyshlinskyy explains. They did this every year. “The logic was: these procurements will later be covered by the Ukraine Support Loan and the EU effectively allowed this to happen,” the expert explains. “The problem is that the cash from that program is not sufficient to cover all our needs.”
Next year the total defense need is 175 billion dollars, while partner arms assistance in the most generous year, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, reached about 45 billion dollars (in cash equivalent). “That’s a lot, but it’s all very nontransparent (because they deliver weapons directly, which immediately go into use),” says Hlib Vyshlinskyy. “And when money becomes scarcer, it’s immediately noticeable.”
By September a huge gap had emerged between expenditures and capabilities. We received significantly less direct weapon assistance—not money—than in previous years, Vyshlinskyy explains. He cites Kiel Institute data: in the first half of 2026 compared with the first half of 2025 there was over 7 billion euros less. Another reason for the gap: during budget planning the intensity of combat was underestimated. “This is a problem every year. The Ministry of Finance works based on available resources, and our partners commit based on a ‘minimal’ scenario, not wanting to spend extra,” the CES head says. This year the intensity was such that means were catastrophically lacking (recall, for example, the need to cover the rear from the air). So defense was underbudgeted from the start. On top of that we received less external arms assistance because the Ukraine Support Loan “relaxed everyone a bit,” says Vyshlinskyy. “They decided there was finally a special program, so let’s not strain ourselves to find additional weapons,” he explains. “Plus we had changes in the MoD and that could also have had a negative impact.”
As a result, the previous calculation for covering overall defense needs from the state budget and external weapons supplies began to fall apart before our eyes.
Artillerymen of the 24th Brigade working with the Bohdana cannon
“There is no doubt there’s a problem with money for the military, but it stems from the key issue: an overall lack of funds,” Hudymenko says.
Both LB.ua interlocutors are convinced the current salary crisis will be overcome. “But we fight exclusively on donors’ money—that’s a fact that must be realized and lead to appropriate conclusions about voting in the Verkhovna Rada on a package of reforms and their support by the president and the Office of the President,” Hudymenko says. And we have big problems with that.
The Cabinet is initiating an extraordinary session of the Verkhovna Rada on 12 October 2026 to urgently adopt a package of reforms and laws necessary to preserve financial assistance from international partners (the EU and the IMF).
International partners still have commitments worth 29,5 billion dollars (over 1,3 trillion hryvnias) by the end of the year, and how parliament votes will determine their fate, says Hlib Vyshlinskyy. The government has already decided to prepare ten-day and monthly spending plans and to flexibly cut them according to expected receipts. If deputies pass the necessary decisions—then, hypothetically, we’ll allow ourselves spending on building protection for energy facilities. If not—there will only be enough money for pensions.
LB.ua asked several parliamentarians about plans and sentiments for October and next year (in the context of the defense budget and monetary allowances). All interlocutors (including the opposition) say they are “in constant contact with the government.” But the Cabinet stresses that protected budget lines will definitely be executed through the end of the year. How next year will turn out without external financing is unknown.
Don’t damage the international image and mobilize your own resources
In the 2027 budget the military are promised “fair payments,” but an increase in monetary allowances for them is again not provided. Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko, presenting the draft budget, spoke of 1,08 trillion hryvnias for payments—338 billion more than before. However, this resource increase is primarily meant to secure the existing payment system and finance decisions that lacked funds last year. Ensuring budget expenditures for 2027 year is also written on water.
Serhiy Marchenko speaking from the Verkhovna Rada tribune
“Right now we have to work with donors as actively as possible,” Yuriy Hudymenko insists. “And that’s much easier to do if we show ourselves as adequate partners: vote for reforms, don’t try to attack NABU, and when our prosecutors don’t flee abroad.” We must be the kind of partner it’s simply awkward to refuse money to because “we don’t have it and there will be even less because the Russians are destroying our economy,” the veteran notes.
At the same time, in the 2027 budget year the structure of expenditures does not change significantly. More money is allocated overall to the security and defense sector, but base monetary allowances for all military personnel are not increased. Instead, spending rises for the SBU, National Police, National Guard, State Emergency Service, GUR, the judiciary and other state structures. Base positional salaries seem to remain unchanged, while additional funds are directed to specific bonuses, rewards and incentives.
And raising or at least reviewing soldiers’ monetary allowances is long overdue. “Indeed, especially for rear positions it hasn’t been revised for a very long time despite inflation—that’s the base monetary allowance,” Vyshlinskyy says.
People’s Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak proposed a package of amendments “+20% for the army” to the draft state budget for 2027 year to radically revise funding for the Armed Forces and raise service members’ monetary allowances. Vyshlinskyy believes the document’s targets are unrealistic unless European partners are involved. Their financing should be viewed as an investment in a security contract for Europe. “We need to agree with them on revising the price of that contract and if successful, we will have the resources to pay higher allowances,” Vyshlinskyy thinks.
Service members of the 3 army corps of Ukraine repair an NRK at the Kill House academy in Kyiv region on 6 May 2026.
That could have been possible in theory if scandals caused by NABU-exposed schemes hadn’t spoiled everything.”
But last week in Brussels the Foreign Affairs Council, with defense ministers participating, held a discussion on military support for Ukraine. A delegation from the MoD and the Ministry of Finance attended from Ukraine. So negotiations on defense spending are ongoing. “But for success there must be trust in the Ukrainian authorities,” Vyshlinskyy emphasizes.
Ultimately partners may not give money directly for service members’ pay but could provide more weapons. Then our budget would free up internal resources to increase funding for salaries.
Alternatively, money could be saved by changing mobilization and demobilization principles. Currently the military includes many mobilized personnel who, for health reasons, are incapable of performing combat tasks, and demobilization is effectively impossible. Yet the defense budget pays these people’s salaries, food, clothing and medical care. “In reality we can’t afford this, and the new General Staff leadership should make a conscious decision to officially (or by unofficial order, as often happens) discharge such people,” Vyshlinskyy reasons. “Let’s write off 100–200 thousand who are unnecessary for real defense (and there’s an excess in rear positions), and raise allowances for those participating in combat.”
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