Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy boosts army wages and seeks foreign recruits to counter manpower shortage

Frontline soldiers to get better salaries and revised fixed-term contracts; Putin reacts to Ukraine’s increasing drone strikes. What we know on day 1,571

Ukraine will hike military wages and seek to recruit more fighters abroad, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has confirmed, as the army faces a manpower shortage after four years of war with Russia. Zelenskyy’s government said in May it would study possible measures to boost military personnel numbers after talks on how to end the war with Russia stalled. “We agreed on how to increase the financial resilience of our defence and further transformation of the Ukrainian army,” Ukraine’s president said on Friday after meeting key cabinet ministers. “The cabinet of ministers will approve a specific mechanism, and the government should start the first new payments as early as June,” he added.

Ukraine has secured a €90bn ($104bn) loan from the EU allowing the government to increase defence spending to a record 4.4tn hryvnias ($97bn) this year. The funds are due to start flowing this month. Zelenskyy said his government would raise the basic military wage by one-third to 30,000 hryvnias ($700). The step was aimed at matching the country’s average monthly salary, which has steadily risen during the war due to staff shortages, military analysts and economists said. Infantry soldiers fighting on the frontline will receive an average monthly salary of 300,000 hryvnias (about $7,000), up from about 100,000 to 150,000 hryvnias at present. They will also be offered a new type of fixed-term contract for 10, 14 or 24 months for combat duties.

Kyiv also wants to recruit more foreign fighters. “I have instructed to create significantly more opportunities to recruit foreign volunteers into the Ukrainian army, and there will be more recruitment channels in this regard,” Zelenskyy said. About 10,000 foreign volunteers have joined the Ukrainian army from more than 70 countries since the war began, according to estimates by Ukrainian military publications.

Ambassadors from the EU’s 27 countries agreed on Friday to advance membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova, with the first phase of negotiations to begin on Monday. Zelenskyy has made EU membership a key strategic goal. Writing on Telegram, he thanked the EU and its leaders “for this strong step for Europe”. He added: “Ukraine is carrying out what is necessary and it is important that the EU is also keeping its word.”

Vladimir Putin said Ukraine’s increasing drone strikes on Russia aimed to “sow confusion” and damage the country’s economy. Ukraine has hit ever deeper into Russia in recent months, regularly striking oil refineries and export hubs. “Their goal is to create a split in Russian society, sow confusion and inflict economic damage,” the Russian president told soldiers in a meeting at the Kremlin on Friday. “But they will not succeed.” The comments came hours after Kyiv said it hit a major oil refinery more than 1,000km (about 620 miles) from the frontline. Putin admitted that Ukrainian strikes had caused “economic damage” but claimed that “everything is quickly restored”.

The governor of Russia’s border Bryansk region said one person was killed and another injured in a drone strike on Friday, while the defence ministry said Russian air defence units had downed 185 Ukrainian drones over a 12-hour period. The region’s general headquarters, quoted by Russian news agencies, said air defence units had destroyed 62 drones, but gave no time frame for the action. Russia’s defence ministry reported 185 drones intercepted between 8am and 8pm (0500-1700 GMT) over about a dozen regions, most in central Russia.

Britain on Friday said a full ban on diesel and jet fuel made in Russia would happen by 2027 as it set out its timeline to end a temporary licence for Russian oil products. Britain last month said it would continue to allow imports of diesel and jet fuel refined from Russian crude in third countries, deferring a previously announced ban, citing supply issues caused by the Iran war. The government said existing sanctions were not being lifted but new sanctions were being phased in. On Friday the business and trade ministry said the temporary licence for phasing in the ban would expire by 1 January.