Ukraine’s General Staff Unveils June 12 Overhaul of Military Contracts, Pay and Personnel Tech

Ukraine’s General Staff on Friday announced the first phase of a sweeping overhaul of military service, centered on fixed-term contracts, sharply higher infantry pay and new digital personnel tools, in what officials described as the biggest transformation of the system since Russia’s full-scale invasion. In a June 12 post on the General Staff’s official Telegram channel, under the headline “Розпочинаємо комплексну трансформацію системи військової служби,” the military said the reform was being carried out “by order of the President” and jointly by the government, Defense Ministry, General Staff, Finance Ministry and parliament. The changes are aimed at making service terms, pay and post-service leave more predictable as Ukraine manages wartime manpower and frontline rotation pressures.

The General Staff said the new system would introduce three contract categories. An infantry or assault contract would run 14 months for civilians, 10 months for current servicemembers and from six months for people who had previously left service. A combat contract would last 24 months for combat specialties including drone pilots, artillery personnel, electronic warfare specialists and other combat roles. A basic contract would also last 24 months for other service areas, including support and rear roles.

Each contract, the General Staff said, would include guaranteed deferment or post-service time off of at least six months. It described a formula under which one month in combat would count as three months of deferment. In the example given by the military, a soldier who served 10 months, including four months in combat, would receive 18 months of deferment. The announcement also said current servicemembers, civilians and people already serving under contract would be able to sign onto or switch to the new terms.

The package also includes major pay changes. The General Staff said infantry troops would receive average monthly pay of about 300,000 hryvnias, with a maximum of 460,000 hryvnias. At the official June 12 exchange rate, that is about $6,700 on average and about $10,200 at the top end. The minimum monthly pay for rear-area troops would rise to 30,000 hryvnias. The military also said pay for commanders of combat units, their deputies and chiefs of staff would double, in addition to combat pay, and that a corps commander could receive about 230,000 hryvnias a month.

Alongside the contract and pay changes, the General Staff said it would introduce a front-line system called Mission Control to track troop workload, time spent on position and combat-pay accounting in real time. It also said it would begin automatic transfers within a single corps through the Army+ digital platform, starting with a beta test in selected corps. The stated aim is to reduce bureaucracy and allow soldiers to change units without having to leave military service, part of a broader effort to digitize personnel management during wartime.

The June 12 announcement builds on a similar reform outline published by the Defense Ministry on May 1. In that statement, attributed to Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, the ministry said, “From day one in office, we have been working on a comprehensive transformation of recruitment and service conditions in the Defence Forces,” and said results would begin appearing in June. The latest move also follows an April 30 order signed by commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi that introduced mandatory frontline rotation, medical exams after combat tours and guaranteed rest periods, providing context for the push to formalize service length and recovery time. Still, while Friday’s announcement is an authoritative statement of policy and rollout, publicly available information does not yet show whether every element has already been fully enacted in law or backed by finalized budget lines.