Some brigades of the AFU have stopped paying combat bonuses for moving to and from positions

Sergeant-instructor of the 59th Brigade of the Unmanned Systems Forces Anton Chorny reported that certain AFU brigades have stopped accruing combat bonuses for the time spent moving to and from positions — the most dangerous phase of a mission, which can take several weeks.

According to him, this practice may spread to all units.

Chorny spoke about this in an interview with blogger Yuriy Romanenko. According to him, in the 77th Air Assault Brigade, the time spent moving to and from positions is no longer counted as combat time — it is classified as time in the rear and is not factored into the calculation of combat bonuses.

“Things are tough for us right now. Tough in every way. There’s no diesel. To get to a position, people fuel up their vehicles with their own money. And recently I was talking with guys from the air assault forces where I used to serve, in the 77th Brigade, with drone operators… Do you know what they’ve come up with in the air assault forces now? The time spent moving to and from a position is not to be counted toward the combat bonus — it’s not considered combat time. Meaning it counts as time in the rear. But that’s the most dangerous time: the hardest part is moving in and out. At the position itself, if the previous rotation did some fortifying, there’s a chance things will be okay there. On top of that, we have positions that require a 17–20 kilometer march. And moving into them takes three weeks. And that time is spent under constant fire from FPVs, artillery, all kinds of glide bombs, Molniya drones. And that time will not be counted. In the 77th Air Assault Brigade it’s already not counted toward combat bonuses. I think it’s because there’s no money in the country,” — Chorny said.

The sergeant also warned that in the future, a wound received while moving to a position could begin to be classified as one received in the rear.

Against the backdrop of these reports, Servant of the People party MP Bohdan Kytsak stated that the Ukrainian budget is short of nearly one trillion hryvnias even to pay current military salaries. His faction colleague Olha Vasylevska-Smahliuk clarified that Ukraine is currently only funding social expenditures, public sector salaries, and military maintenance costs.