Payments stretched over 7 years: how the state saves on families of fallen heroes
8 September 11:11
ANALYSIS
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has updated the rules for the appointment and payment of one-time financial assistance (OGA) to the families of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who died during martial law. The new rules will apply to deaths certified as of September 1, 2025, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The main changes
The total amount of assistance remains unchanged at UAH 15 million. However, the payment scheme is changing dramatically:
- uAH 3 million (1/5 of the amount) will be paid immediately.
- uAH 12 million (4/5 of the amount) will be distributed over 80 months.
This means that families will receive 150 thousand hryvnias per month for six years and eight months.
The updated procedure will be applied only to the families of servicemen whose deaths are officially certified by a death certificate starting from September 1, 2025.
For the families of those who died before this date, the procedure and timing of payments remain unchanged.
The new payment rules will apply to all units of the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine, not just the Armed Forces.
The purpose of the “reform”
“The purpose of the changes is to ensure stable and predictable financial support for family members of fallen defenders, taking into account the increase in defense spending caused by full-scale Russian aggression,”
– the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
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As it was before
The Defense Ministry decided to keep silent on how these payments were made before September 1. Previously, the conditions were as follows:
- the total amount of payments was 15 million hryvnias;
- uAH 3 million (1/5 of the amount) was paid immediately;
- uAH 12 million (4/5 of the amount) was to be distributed over 40 months, i.e. 3 years and 4 months.
Thus, the only innovation of this “reform” from the Ministry of Defense is the doubling of the payment period.
That is, previously, the families of fallen soldiers received UAH 300,000 per month for 40 months, and now they will receive UAH 150,000 for 80 months.
This step, according to the Defense Ministry,
“strengthens the planned nature of the support system.”
Hryvnia inflation
In government resolutions and orders of the Defense Ministry, the amount of payments is stated as 15 million hryvnias, not the equivalent in dollars or euros. No indexation for currency is provided: if the hryvnia depreciates, payments will still be made in fixed hryvnia. The families of the victims will receive UAH 15 million, regardless of how much these hryvnias will cost on the currency market and their purchasing power.
Over the nearly three decades of its existence, the hryvnia has been steadily depreciating, experiencing sharp drops during crises, from the 2008 turmoil to record inflation in 2015, when prices soared by more than 40% in a year. The last big blow came in 2022: due to the full-scale war, annual inflation was over 26%. Although the rate slowed slightly in 2023, in 2024-2025, price growth returned to double digits.
Over the past 80 months, the period during which the Ministry of Defense will now pay assistance to the families of the victims, prices in Ukraine have increased by about one and a half times. In other words, the purchasing power of the hryvnia has fallen by about 64% over this time. What could have been bought for 100 hryvnias in 2018 will cost 164 hryvnias today.
80 months ago (January-February 2019), the exchange rate was much more favorable: 1 dollar was worth about 25.8 hryvnias per year on average. That is, 150,000 hryvnias was equal to about $5,813.
As of September 2025, the exchange rate is about 41.24 UAH per $1. So 150,000 UAH is now about $3,637.
That is, the amount of UAH 150,000 is now worth $2,176 less than it was 80 months ago – a loss of purchasing power of more than a third of the original amount.
Conclusions
The history of the hryvnia is a history of constant inflation. Under the current socio-economic, geopolitical and other conditions, as well as the current system of economic management in Ukraine, there is little reason to hope that anything will change in this regard over the next 80 months.
Thus, any postponement of payments in the Ukrainian context is beneficial only to the state and is, in fact, a robbery of people whose relatives and friends died defending this state.
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