Can Ukraine sustain a million-strong army after the war?

In fact, due to the lack of details, it is difficult to determine exactly what type of army reduction is being referred to — whether it concerns personnel, armaments, or a combination of both.

I hope that, eventually, we will see a thorough analysis from experts on how Ukraine can maintain a million-strong army after the fighting ends and what the president's statement meant in detail. However, several questions have already arisen.

1. Before the war, the Ukrainian army was primarily contract-based or professional (with about 200,000 personnel). Now, it has grown to nearly 1,000,000, the majority of whom were mobilized or volunteered for the duration of the war. It is clear that after the war, most of them will want to demobilize. The key question is: by whom and how will they be replaced?

2. A minimum salary for a soldier is 20,000 UAH per month, excluding other expenses. This totals roughly 20 billion UAH per month, or 240 billion UAH per year. Additionally, another half of this amount is required for their expenses, such as food, clothing, and other necessities. Therefore, the real figure will likely reach around 400-500 billion UAH per year, including costs for weapons, troop training, technical support, fuel, and electricity (not including the cost of weaponry).

Is there confidence that the government will be able to recruit 1 million people on contracts for 20,000 UAH per month, especially as civilian salaries continue to rise?

3. This million-strong force will need to be housed in barracks, with additional housing built for officers and others. They won’t continue living in trenches, dugouts, or abandoned buildings. There isn't even an approximate estimate of how much this will cost or where the money will come from.

In other words, there are objective reasons that will likely lead to a reduction in the army in the future if some form of peace agreement is reached. This is evident not only to us, which raises the question of why the president insists on being against reducing the army.

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About the author. Serhii Huz, journalist.

The editors don't always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.