{"id":293906,"date":"2025-07-26T18:11:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T18:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/293906\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T18:11:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T18:11:12","slug":"zelenskyy-turns-to-eu-to-help-fund-military-pay-boost-to-tackle-recruitment-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/293906\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy turns to EU to help fund military pay boost to tackle recruitment woes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Photo: Bloomberg<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is planning to ask European allies to help fund salary increases for Ukrainian military personnel fighting Russia\u2019s invasion in order to alleviate the shortage of recruits.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2025-07-25\/zelenskiy-plans-to-ask-europe-for-help-to-pay-ukraine-s-soldiers?srnd=homepage-europe&amp;sref=cus85deZ&amp;fbclid=IwY2xjawLwUB5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETB2cW8wRTBORGdJZmlZc24xAR6Kp75TLzJA_0LhRh1f3Pk2b2PA1J__IF7BksRBkFpFJQKITCEa4lZVv3001g_aem_2nHGKAu3pMkK93yOEnvA3w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bloomberg<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Quote from Zelenskyy: <\/strong>&#8220;Previously, Europeans refused to provide funding for the salaries of our military personnel, only for weapons. Our service members themselves can be the weapon that protects everyone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement:<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Zelenskyy\u2019s government wants to motivate more volunteers by offering substantial payments for those who sign military contracts,&#8221; Bloomberg writes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Russia has long offered large signing bonuses and high salaries to lure tens of thousands to its army each month, seeking to avoid any repeat of a spike in public anxiety when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pravda.com.ua\/eng\/articles\/2024\/03\/20\/7447383\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">President Vladimir Putin<\/a> ordered a partial draft a few months into the 2022 invasion,&#8221; the report said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Increasing payments to soldiers would add to strains on Ukraine\u2019s state budget, which had a deficit exceeding 20% of gross domestic product last year amid massive military spending,&#8221; Bloomberg reports.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The war-torn nation relies on tens of billions of dollars in aid from its foreign allies, who have so far rejected the idea of directly covering military expenses,&#8221; the report adds.<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg notes that although the International Monetary Fund, which oversees a US$16 billion loan programme, is urging Kyiv to reduce the budget deficit, the government has no plans to raise taxes.<\/p>\n<p>As Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko told Bloomberg News, global donors have provided only half of the approximately US$75 billion needed for the budget over the next two years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Background:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>&#13;<\/p>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Following the adoption of budget amendments this year, the planned deficit will amount to US$42 billion, which cannot be fully covered by partners, according to Roksolana Pidlas, head of the parliamentary budget committee. &#8220;The need for external financing will remain large \u2013 around, or even more than US$40 billion,&#8221; she wrote on Facebook.<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">As previously reported by the Ministry of Finance, general budget fund expenditure in June 2025 totalled UAH 337.4 billion (approx. US$8 billion), with UAH 1.9 trillion (US$45 billion) for the first half of the year \u2013 a 21.5% increase compared to the same period last year.<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">The Verkhovna Rada passed amendments to the 2025 state budget at first reading, boosting expenditure by UAH 450 billion (US$11 billion).<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Earlier, it was reported that Ukraine chronically lacks funds to finance the war: in 2026, the uncovered financing need may reach a trillion hryvnias (US$24 billion).<\/li>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Support Ukrainska Pravda on <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/pravdaua\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Patreon<\/strong><\/a><strong>!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Photo: Bloomberg Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is planning to ask European allies to help fund salary&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[17542,2000,299,5187,1699,14432],"class_list":{"0":"post-293906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-armed-forces","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-zelenskyy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114920887655621767","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}