- December 17, 2025
- 6:49 pm
- Ukraine
When a person sits in a trench, there is no difference — whether they are a career military or a mobilized civilian. The risk is the same. The ground is the same. The enemy is the same.
But this difference suddenly appears later — in pension laws.
This is directly stated by Danilo Hetmantsev, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and head of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax, and customs policy on December 17, 2025.
Who Holds the Front Today
The majority of those fighting for Ukraine now are not professional military personnel.
They are former programmers, doctors, drivers, students. People who lived civilian lives before the war and took up arms and became soldiers after the invasion.
And here arises a fundamental question for the state itself:
is their contribution recognized as much as the contribution of those who served in the army during peacetime?
What is the Problem with the Pension System
Today, Ukraine’s pension legislation effectively divides veterans into two classes.
Career military personnel receive pensions under Law No. 2262 — “On Pension Provision for Persons Dismissed from Military Service”. It provides for:
preferential service time calculated as “one year for two” or “one year for three”
early retirement at 45 with 25 years of service
a pension amounting to 50–75% of monetary support
automatic recalculation with military salary increases
Mobilized civilians fall under Law No. 1058 — “On Mandatory State Pension Insurance”:
without preferential service time
early retirement at 55 (men) and 50 (women) with longer service
a pension of about 20–25% of the average earnings over their entire working life
indexation that does not effectively cover inflation
Numbers That Speak for Themselves
The difference is visible even without complex calculations:
15,747 hryvnias (approximately 1,430–1,570 shekels) — the average pension of a career military person
5,992 hryvnias (approximately 540–600 shekels) — the pension of a mobilized veteran
If two people shared one trench, one dugout, and the same risk —
should they receive such different pensions just because one signed a contract during peacetime and the other was called up through mobilization?
How Other Countries Solve This
Ukraine is not the first country to face this problem.
USA
combat veterans receive preferential service time
additional points in the Social Security system
Disability Compensation program — from 165 to 3,600 dollars per month
Israel
automatic Defence Veteran status
allowances depend on the intensity of combat
for the wounded — payments up to 100% of the average salary
service can be counted with an increased coefficient
Germany
preferential service time for mobilized
supplements depending on the level of risk
separate Einsatzschädigung pension for the wounded
All models have one thing in common:
combat experience is decisive, not the person’s pre-war status.
What Ukraine Should Do
According to Hetmantsev, pension reform must finally stop ignoring the obvious.
Combat experience should be the main criterion.
Allowances should depend on real risk and participation in battles.
This is not a privilege — it is the state’s duty.
After victory, Ukraine will have hundreds of thousands of veterans. Their pensions are not a matter of accounting or a budget line. It is an answer to the question, what kind of country are we building after the war.
Those who defended the state should not live worse than those who served during peacetime. They have already done their part. Now it’s the state’s turn.
Today, the government announces the development of a new concept for veteran pension provision. The criteria are still being formed, and it is crucial now that they are fair — not on paper, but in real life. This and key social decisions in Ukraine are regularly covered by NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency.
