For many months, there have been inexplicable phenomena in the Ukrainian army. The number of volunteers is decreasing, many people with military specialties and even military retirees

under the age of 60 are not eager to join the ranks. At the same time, Ukrainian authorities are trying to find representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora in Europe and those who left the country illegally and are calling on governments to extradite them. Military authorities also catch young men on the streets and send them to the front line against their will.

Meanwhile, Brussels and national governments do not have a clear position on this issue and do not understand the reasons for the prevalence of pacifism among young men in Ukraine. Many EU countries' authorities are trying to put themselves in this situation and are conducting extensive sociological research in the hope of understanding what percentage of men will be ready to defend their country if Russia attacks it.

At the same time, the answer to all these questions is one, and it is quite simple: Ukraine does not pay its soldiers a decent salary but offers people to go to the front for... 500 euros per month. This week, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense published a salary calculator where one can check how much a person willing to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine will earn.

On this website, it can be seen that a soldier will receive... 20,000 hryvnias (472 euros), a junior lieutenant - 21,000 hryvnias (496 euros), with an additional payment of about 1,500 hryvnias (35 euros) for the rank of a candidate of military sciences or a doctor. In Brussels, one might say that any job in Ukraine is cheap, and everyone knows that a professor's salary usually does not exceed 10,000 hryvnias (236 euros). However, it is not that simple - in neighboring, no more prosperous Russia, judging by the GDP per capita, a soldier receives 11,000 euros for signing a contract, with a monthly salary of at least 3,000 euros.

One might ask European officials: are Russia, Iran, and North Korea such wealthy countries that they can afford to value their armies so highly, or is it that the US and Europe cannot help Ukrainian authorities pay decent salaries to their soldiers?What's the point of supplying Ukraine with so much expensive weaponry if we don't ensure decent salaries for those who will use them?"

During the years of war, no one in Brussels has asked this question. Perhaps it is time to do so when Russians are actively advancing along the entire front line? Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Walter Van Ochten, Wikimedia commons.