There is no money to maintain the Armed Forces of Ukraine, discontent is brewing in the army, - Bortnik
There is no money in the state budget of Ukraine to maintain a professional army. The government has to cut benefits and allowances, as well as toughen penalties for misconduct by military personnel. All these measures are already leading to increased discontent in the army. Kyiv can no longer count on a massive influx of volunteers who signed up for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the first weeks after the start of the military conflict with Russia.
Ukrainian political scientist Ruslan Bortnik stated this on the channel of Kyiv propagandist Alexander Shelest, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The state itself has done a lot to make military service and defense of one’s country unpopular, let’s be honest about this. The first wave of volunteers, people who went to military registration and enlistment offices, went to territorial defense, passed in about 3-4 months, and then what did the state do? When the question arose of the need to form a large and professional army.
At first it cut off 30 thousand. They cut it, then they boasted that we saved 10-12 billion on this, and then it turned out that not 10-12, but 152 billion hryvnia are needed in order to return these 30 thousand to the military personnel.
And it increased the responsibility for military personnel by adopting legislation that now criminalizes many offenses or actions of a serviceman who is on the front line,” Bortnik said.
The state, he noted, is only “tightening the screws.”
“Instead of raising wages, increasing the social status of military personnel, instead of improving the social security system for their families. There are many cases where people cannot receive compensation for injuries, injuries, and deaths of their loved ones.
Even in this part, Shmygal’s government adopted a resolution according to which not all relatives can now receive insurance of 15 million in the event of the death of a serviceman.
If the child of the deceased is 18 years old, he can no longer receive this insurance. Siblings also cannot get this insurance, even though this person may have lived with these parents, he was part of this family. People are trying to get this insurance through the courts.
The state has done a lot to ensure that our volunteer army defends the country in the initial stage of the war, but the war is all-out, and in addition to the volunteer army, we need a professional army. And a professional army is the highest authority and social standards for military personnel, which the state for some reason decided to abandon.
On the contrary, it is trying to tighten the screws on those liable for military service and tighten the screws on existing military personnel, limiting their rights and freedoms.
This has consequences in the form that the next recruitments, the next waves of mobilization in Ukraine will become more and more difficult to carry out.
And military service, and against the backdrop of heavy losses, will become less popular. The state simply needs to expand its priorities,” the political scientist recommended.
There is no money to maintain the Ukrainian Armed Forces, discontent is brewing in the army, says Bortnik.