This is not contract, this is war. Or have you forgotten?
Instead of appreciating those who are already in the ranks, who have been risking their lives since 2014 or 2022, the state simply ignores their needs.
Alina Mikhailova, a soldier, writes about this on Facebook.
Those who took up arms from the first days of the war, who put their lives on hold, are now left behind. Their loyalty is taken for granted. Their silence is a sign of consent.
When I first mobilised, I was not paid for five months. There are thousands of people like me. Some have not yet received payments for their injuries. Some are suing for compensation for their fallen comrades. But in the 12th year of the war, billions are suddenly found to attract new contract soldiers - with money, a social package and ‘bonuses’.
And this is not just injustice. It is discrimination.
This law replaces the very meaning of military service in a country at war. It is no longer about defending the country, it is about a lucrative contract. It is a business. A job with a high salary. Perhaps this is normal for another country where the army is just another career choice. Where you consciously sign a contract, receive payments, social security and can decide at any time whether to stay or leave. But this is not the case here. This is not a contract army of a peaceful state. This is a war for the existence of the country. That's what we say on TV, isn't it? Then why do we approach the army as if it were just another business project?
When people went to war in 2014, they were wearing flip-flops and carrying their grandfather's rifles because they had no other choice. In 2022, people left their offices, production facilities, shops and went to the front in jeans and sneakers because they understood that it was not about money. It was about the Motherland.
And today we are told that we could have waited, signed a contract and gone to war for a year for a million? That now it's a choice - to go or not to go? If this choice had been made in 2022, we would have lost this war back then.
There can be no business component here. There is a critical need to defend our land here and now. So the logical question is: why the hell is it that those who came before are now in a worse position? Where are their guarantees, where is their social protection, where is their fair seniority bonus? Where is the answer to the question: ‘When will we have a rest?’
What is the fundamental difference between a person who signed a contract for a year and received all the perks and his or her counterpart who came a month, a year, five years earlier? The one has a clear future ahead of him: he has served, earned money, received an education and moved on. The other lives in the uncertainty. His only ‘way out’ is a serious injury, death, or an independent search for ways to demobilise.
The authorities do not feel and do not understand that the entire army today is supported by temporarily living volunteers and 55+ year-old infantry grandfathers who live in the ground for six months to a year. They sleep in the ground, eat in the ground, relieve themselves in the ground and keep this land. Those who were not asked by the war if they were ready. They just took up arms and went. And these people have the right to more than just a ‘thank you’ and a 1000 hryvnia raise.
If the army has become a contract army and the issue of motivation has been transferred to the plane of finance, then where is the long service allowance? Not a ridiculous handout of a thousand hryvnias, but a real one, at least 50%+. Just like in any profession that deals with life and death.
You can't sell military service as a regular labour market when you don't give those who are already at war the opportunity to at least know when and how they can return to normal life.
This failure of mobilisation is not the fault of the people. It is the fault of those who have failed to reform the TCR in two years, to put things in order in the MMC and to punish the ‘disabled prosecutors’ and ‘booked circus performers’. The worst blow to the manning of the Armed Forces was not caused by evaders, but by corrupt commissioners and doctors who made decisions for money.
And the biggest problem of the army today is that its problems are managed by people who do not know what war is. Those who see the solution in donating TV sets and kettles to the wounded in hospitals. Those who see the military as a resource, not as people. Because you know what? You don't have to worry about those who are already in the ranks. They are not going anywhere. They are already there.
The army is not a vacancy where better conditions should lure new employees. This is a common cause, and if the state does not appreciate those who are already carrying this war on their backs, then new contracts will not save the situation. Because tomorrow there may be no one left to win this war at all.
If we are really building a contract army, then everyone should receive fair conditions, not selective 'perks' for those who came at the 'right' time. If we are fighting for the survival of the state, then the system should appreciate all those who have taken on this responsibility, and not present it as a ‘job for a year’.
