In mid-June, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry released the details of its military reform plan. It introduces new contracts and raises pay for some service members — but not all. Some soldiers thanked the ministry for finally moving to reform the system. But most have criticized the changes, Ukrainska Pravda reported. The outlet’s journalists laid out the reform’s key provisions and spoke with service members who hold a range of positions in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Soldiers say the reform falls short of their expectations and fails to answer the central question: when will they be able to go home

The question of returning from service is especially acute for those who joined the army back in 2014 and are now in their 12th year of fighting. Those who enlisted after the full-scale invasion began in 2022 are in their fifth year. All contracts signed before 2022 became open-ended after February 24 of that year.

Rather than set a firm discharge date, the Defense Ministry is asking all active service members to serve an additional 6 to 14 months in infantry roles — or two years in other units or rear positions — before becoming eligible for a deferment from remobilization of at least six months. Those who decline to sign new contracts will serve until demobilization, meaning in all likelihood until the end of the war, unless Ukrainian authorities act sooner. Under the new plan, contract soldiers and mobilized soldiers would receive equal pay.

The Defense Ministry itself acknowledges it is not yet ready to discuss demobilization. At the briefing devoted to the reform, officials asked journalists not to use the word “demobilization” and to substitute a different term: “discharge.”

Quotes from service members:

I genuinely don’t understand why those who have been serving since the days of ATO-JFO and since February 24, 2022, who were “automatically” extended in service, should have to sign any contract at all… If anyone deserves first priority for discharge, it’s them.

Why, after four and a half years, do you have to serve another two?

In my opinion, dude, we got played. Like suckers, conned behind our backs…

What if the war ends in six months and I still have 18 months left on my contract? Am I an idiot or what? I think that every six months.

While the war is going on, I want to fight. Once the war ends, what’s left is the army and army bullshit. I really don’t want anything keeping me here after that.

The phased discharge from service that the authorities have promised to carry out in the fall is also raising questions

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was the first to speak of the possibility of a phased discharge of those mobilized earlier, back in May. But as the Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda reports, service members still do not understand how this will be organized or exactly who will be counted among those mobilized earlier. The procedure is still being developed, and discharging service members requires a separate presidential decree.

Journalists estimate that roughly a couple of thousand people per month could be discharged simultaneously from Ukraine’s million-strong army, and that waiting one’s turn could take years. Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in an interview with the television channel 1+1 that the number of service members discharged each month depends on the situation on the battlefield.

Service members believe the reform was not designed for them. Its goal is to attract more civilians into the army

Based on service members’ impressions and the words of the defense minister, the primary audience for the reform is civilians whom the authorities are only now trying to recruit. Some active service members consider it unfair that civilians who have not yet joined the army will now find themselves in more favorable conditions.

In response to complaints about unfairness toward active service members, the Defense Ministry states that those who have been in the army the longest must wait for the discharge procedure by presidential decree. The ministry also notes that an active service member can sign a new contract for 10 months, while a civilian can only sign one for 14.

At the same time, Ukrainska Pravda notes, it is unclear whether the reform will attract any new people to the army at all. “Because if not, who will replace those who leave the army in their positions? And will they even be able to leave in that case?” the outlet writes.

Service members do not understand what will happen to contracts already signed

The contracts introduced by the new reform are not the only ones in the Ukrainian army. Before them, there were contracts for one, three, or five years of service, as well as contracts for Ukrainian citizens between the ages of 18 and 24 — which, according to journalists’ assessments, failed to attract young people to the army.

By Ukrainska Pravda’s estimates, no fewer than 25–30% of Ukrainian service members are already serving under various contracts. They currently do not understand whether they need to terminate their old contract in favor of a new one, or how their post-service deferment will be calculated.

Deputy Defense Minister Mstyslav Banik clarified that service members who already have a contract can either re-sign under the new one or complete their existing one. What happens to the deferment in either case remains unclear.

Another problem is the uneven pay raises

Active service members complain that the pay raises bypassed drone operators, who currently carry out the majority of strikes on the battlefield and against Russian rear areas.

The raise barely touched rear-support personnel — logistics specialists, cooks, and media workers. Formally, their salaries will increase by 50%, from 20,000 to 30,000 hryvnias. “But if you look at food prices, gasoline, and housing rental in Kyiv, Kharkiv, or Pavlohrad, where most rear headquarters are located, it becomes clear that this payment is paltry,” Ukrainska Pravda writes. When asked about the “paltry compensation for rear-support personnel,” the Defense Ministry responded that it would pay them more, but there are no funds for it.

Several of the journalists’ interlocutors also expressed doubt that the new, higher payments — 300,000–460,000 hryvnias per month — would motivate Ukrainians to volunteer for infantry or assault units. An officer from one of the assault regiments is convinced the payments have no significant effect on the motivation of assault troops. In his words, “all previous attempts to play around with payments produced no tangible result.”