Ukraine has several times more service members in rear-area roles than on the front lines performing combat tasks and receiving corresponding pay and bonuses, opposition lawmaker Nina Yuzhanina said in a comment to Radio Svoboda, citing Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
“He [Fedorov] gave us figures for the number of troops in the rear or under combat orders. The numbers are striking. There’s a skew,” Yuzhanina said. “He said he’s now thinking about how to level the system so there are more troops doing the core work. There are too many rear-area troops.”
She added that rear-area personnel are “several times more” than combat troops. “When it comes to how many people receive high monetary support—100,000 hryvnias and bonuses—he cited very small numbers,” Yuzhanina noted.
According to Yuzhanina, Fedorov is working on a document called the “War Plan,” which will outline needs across all types of weaponry and troop levels to establish a new balance within the Ukrainian military.
Yuzhanina said she doesn’t know what Fedorov has accomplished so far, but that the Defense Ministry is already proposing to increase 2026 personnel pay spending by nearly 552 billion hryvnias. “That’s more than $12 billion in increased monetary support. That’s a lot,” she said.
On February 2, Fedorov said the Cabinet approved the introduction of a whitelist for Starlink satellite internet terminals.
