One way to encourage people to sign contracts is through competence of their commanders, - ’Servant of People’ Fedienko
In addition to financial incentives, the competence of commanders can also encourage people to sign contracts.
This was stated by Oleksandr Fedienko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defence and Intelligence, according to an article by Censor.NET entitled "New contracts, higher salaries and foreigners in the Armed Forces of Ukraine: the pros and cons of military reform".
Details
"I visit the front line quite often – practically once a week. I spend a lot of time talking to the troops, especially the rank and file and non-commissioned officers. They all say the same thing: if a commander is incompetent, we’ll go AWOL. Commanders must look after their men. That’s a huge motivator," he said.
According to the MP, there is a pool of genuinely capable commanders who look after their troops.
"And then there are those—excuse me—'yes-men', even though they hold senior positions, who try to curry favour with the top military leadership, whilst treating people as mere resources. That’s the problem," added Fedienko.
The MP believes that an internal audit should be carried out within the army to determine how effective and necessary a particular troop strength is.
"To put it in plain terms, we need to define, so to speak, the KPIs – the performance indicators for a particular unit. How combat-ready it is, and to what extent it fights to ensure the survival of its infantrymen, rather than simply 'burning them out'. Because, in fact, these are precisely the units we should be looking up to, and which we need to scale up in the future. And here, first and foremost, we are talking about the effectiveness of the commander and all the unit’s structures, both in terms of logistics and, of course, caring for the infantrymen. When commanders look after them, it motivates them," added the MP.
For more details on military reform, read the article on Censor.NET via the link.
Launch of a comprehensive reform of the army
As a reminder, on 12 June, the Ministry of Defence officially announced the launch of the most comprehensive reform of the military service system. Unique contract formats with clear terms (from 10 months) are being introduced, along with payments for infantry personnel (up to 460,000 UAH per month), a fast-track return for servicemen from the AWOL, and the mass recruitment of foreign volunteers for the front line.
