By Olena Harmash
KYIV, June 12 (Reuters) – Ukraine will hike military wages and seek to recruit more fighters abroad, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday, as the army faces a manpower shortage after four years of war with Russia.
Zelenskiy’s government said in May it would study possible measures to boost military personnel numbers after talks on how to end the war with Russia stalled.
“We agreed on how to increase the financial resilience of our defence and further transformation of the Ukrainian army,” Zelenskiy said in his daily address after meeting key cabinet ministers.
“The cabinet of ministers will approve a specific mechanism, and the government should start the first new payments as early as June,” he added.
DEFENCE SPENDING BOOST
Ukraine has secured a €90 billion loan from the European Union, allowing the government to increase defence spending to a record 4.4 trillion hryvnias ($97 billion) this year. The funds are due to start flowing this month.
Zelenskiy said on Friday the government would raise the basic military wage by one-third to 30,000 hryvnias ($700).
The step was aimed at matching the country’s average monthly salary, which has steadily risen during the war due to staff shortages, military analysts and economists said.
Infantry soldiers fighting on the frontline will receive an average monthly salary of 300,000 hryvnias (about $7,000), up from about 100,000 to 150,000 hryvnias at present.
They will also be offered a new type of fixed-term contract for 10, 14, or 24 months for combat duties.
Kyiv also wants to recruit more foreign fighters.
“I have instructed to create significantly more opportunities to recruit foreign volunteers into the Ukrainian army, and there will be more recruitment channels in this regard,” Zelenskiy said.
About 10,000 foreign volunteers have joined the Ukrainian army from more than 70 countries since the war began, according to estimates by Ukrainian military publications.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash;Editing by Helen Popper)
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