Ukraine's Minister of Defense Mykhailo Fedorov clarified the issue of deferment after the expiration of a military service contract and indicated that for those service members who have been in the Defense Forces the longest and spent the most time in combat, "we are beginning a gradual discharge from service by the end of the year," UNN reports.
The longer the service, the longer the guaranteed deferment. One of the principles of the new contract system is to fairly take into account the path already traveled by the service member
The Minister emphasized: "After the completion of the contract, service members are guaranteed to receive a deferment. Its duration will depend not only on the type of contract but also on the previous term of service and participation in combat operations."
According to him, for different types of contracts, "separate mechanisms for calculating deferment will apply, taking into account combat experience and years of service."
"The guaranteed period for everyone is six months. Beyond that, it depends on which contract you signed and how long you served in the military," he noted and provided examples:
- for instance, there is a civilian who signed an infantry-assault contract for 14 months. During service, they spent four months in combat, for which they received 12 months of deferment. Together with the guaranteed period, it totals one and a half years;
- if such a contract is signed by an active-duty service member (in this case for 10 months) who has been in the military since 2021, then an additional 6 months are added for each year of service since 2022, and one month for each year prior to 2022. Thus, two years and one month are added to the 1.5 years. As a result, after the completion of the contract, the service member will receive 3 years and 7 months of deferment.
"Our task is to make the military service system predictable and fair," the Minister stated.
Those who have defended the country longer should receive more time for recovery after completing their service. This also applies to service members who have been in the Defense Forces the longest and spent the most time in combat. For them, we are beginning a gradual discharge from service by the end of the year
According to the head of the Ministry of Defense, more details about the terms of the new contracts and the calculation of deferments can be found on the Defense Forces contract system website and by calling the hotline at 1519.