Developing a fair approach to the payment of additional remuneration to servicemembers of the SBGSU

July 13, 2026

Decisions and decrees

How to eliminate discrimination in the payment of additional remuneration to border guards for participation in combat operations is the topic of an interdepartmental meeting initiated by the Office of the Military Ombudsman.

Representatives of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Administration of the State Border Guard Service, and experts in the field of military law joined the meeting.

Currently, border guards may receive additional remuneration for performing combat missions in a smaller amount than servicemembers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). The problem has existed for a long time and is related to the fact that the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs have issued different departmental orders to implement Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 168. It determines the procedure for paying additional remuneration to military personnel.

In practice, this means that:

border guards may not be paid the remuneration of up to 100,000 hryvnias for performing combat missions;
no clear conditions are established for the payment of additional remuneration in the amount of 50,000 hryvnias to servicemembers of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGSU) who perform combat or special missions as part of military command bodies;
border guards seconded to different formations of the Defense Forces may face different requirements regarding the documentary confirmation of their participation in combat operations.

"It cannot be that servicemembers who are side by side and performing the exact same combat mission receive different payments solely due to their departmental affiliation. This is a discriminatory approach that places border guards in unequal conditions compared to servicemembers of other components of the Defense Forces," emphasized the First Deputy Military Ombudsman, Ruslan Tsyhankov.

Following the meeting, we are jointly preparing amendments to regulatory and legal acts to ensure a fair approach to the payment of additional remuneration to military personnel.