Ukraine is planning to introduce changes to the existing parameters of reservations for military service in the near future. This was stated by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at a press conference, according to a UNN correspondent.
"I would generally suggest moving away from the phrase 'economic booking'. It is not quite correct. When we talk about the "Fight or Work" principle, we have a very close dialog with our military, business, and the military. That is, we need to find an understanding of how to properly support our economy during the war, how to bring those who are still working with envelopes out of the shadows. We pay great attention to ensuring that the issue of justice is respected, so we involve the military and work with them," Shmyhal said.
According to him, economic booking is not exactly what the government is talking about in terms of the "fight or flight" principle.
В Україні запроваджують принцип "Воюй або працюй" - Шмигаль27.08.24, 11:58
"As of today, a resolution has approved a certain approach to booking people in Ukraine, there are a number of parameters, they relate to critical enterprises. There are also other principles, such as the absence of tax arrears or the level of tax payment, the salary at the enterprise should not be lower than the average salary in the industry, etc.", Shmyhal reminded.
The Prime Minister said that the Cabinet of Ministers wants to improve the approach to booking.
"Today, when we talk about the 'fight or flight' principle, we want to improve this approach, meaning we don't want to introduce any separate legislation or separate approaches. We are actually talking about improving the existing approach to booking. We are looking for a way to solve three problems. First, creating additional jobs. Second, raising salaries for employees. The third is the issue of returning Ukrainians to Ukraine," Shmyhal said.
He recalled that before the full-scale invasion, there were officially about 10 million officially employed people in Ukraine, who received official salaries and paid official taxes.
"It is now important that we have 10 million officially employed people. At the same time, we had 10.5 million pensioners, meaning that there was one pensioner for every one employed. In the first months of the full-scale invasion, we lost 3.5 million jobs, we lost 30% of our economy, our GDP. That is why today we are focusing on small and medium-sized businesses, where we can quickly restore these jobs," Shmyhal said.
He noted that the government has several goals.
"First, restore the number of jobs so that we can fill the budget for the Armed Forces. In the future, after the war is over, the number of employees should provide decent social security for our pensioners. That is, we need to create jobs, bring people back to Ukraine, return people to the white economy, raise wages and pay more taxes and fees to the budget. These are the goals we are working on now. They are almost on the way out. We are now making calculations with experts, and I repeat with the military, because it is impossible that anyone has paid off the defense of the Motherland," explained Shmyhal.
The Prime Minister emphasized that the notion of paying off the defense of the homeland is a red line.
"I think we will introduce them in the near future. It won't be something sensational, it will obviously be changes to the existing booking parameters for Ukrainians," Shmygal said.