First Vice-Speaker of the Rada Kornienko commented on what the minimum salary for the military should be

The First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Oleksandr Kornienko, said that the salary system in the army should be reformed. According to him, there is unity in this regard, because the people’s deputies together with the Minister of Defense and the Prime Minister are talking about it. He said this on the air of Radio Svoboda in the Svoboda Live program.

He noted that the approved 2026 budget is “far from final” and can be revised during the year, as it was done before.

When asked what should be the fair minimum wage for military personnel who are not on the front line of defense, Kornienko expressed the opinion that the benchmark should be the market salary in the country. At first, he announced an amount of approximately 25-30 thousand hryvnias, depending on the region, but later called the amount 35-40 thousand hryvnias. According to Kornienko, with such an amount it will be “psychologically easier for people with such a salary.”

At the same time, regarding the possibility of raising the minimum salary for the military already this year, Kornienko said that the parliament would work on it and “wait for the government’s proposals.”

“If we have somewhere to take 50 billion dollars or euros from other sources, it will be good. We have already raised taxes a lot and will continue to raise them,” Kornienko added.

The head of the parliamentary budget committee, Roksolana Pidlas, said before the budget vote that the Verkhovna Rada will consider raising the salaries of the military in 2026 after ensuring financing of the state budget deficit.

“When we ensure financing of the budget deficit – it is 45.5 billion dollars at the moment – we will be able to talk about increasing defense spending. We will definitely introduce changes to the state budget next year, I am 99% sure of this, and we will consider the issue of increasing expenditures both for the purchase of weapons and drones, and for raising the salaries of military personnel,” Pidlasa said.

Read also: The Ministry of Finance reported on the unmet needs of Ukraine in external financing for the next two years

The Verkhovna Rada approved the draft state budget of Ukraine for 2026 in the second reading. According to the Ministry of Finance, after the finalization of the project to the second reading, the amount of revenues increased to 2 trillion 918 billion UAH, expenditures – 4 trillion 835 billion UAH. Expenditures for the defense and security forces of Ukraine –
2 trillion 806.2 billion UAH or 27.2% of GDP, in particular 1,272 billion UAH – wages with accruals.