Report: Ukraine proposes splitting military recruitment offices, setting fixed service terms

In January 2026, Volodymyr Zelensky replaced Ukraine’s defense minister — Denys Shmyhal was succeeded by Mykhailo Fedorov, who had previously headed the Ministry of Digital Transformation and served as first deputy prime minister. Shortly after his appointment, Fedorov promised to overhaul the military training system and said it was impossible to ignore the problems surrounding the TCR. In early May, Zelensky promised to carry out a new “major stage of army reform.” Ukrainska Pravda spoke with sources and reviewed the current proposals, and reported on what changes are being discussed at the Defense Ministry, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the president’s office.

How the TCR reform is proposed to work

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has proposed splitting the TCR and SP into two separate units — recruitment offices and support offices — sources at the Ukrainian parliament told the Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda.

The recruitment offices would handle registration of military-eligible men, mobilization planning, recruiting, and enlistment processing. The support offices would manage social services — compensation for the wounded, payments to families of the killed, funeral arrangements, and related matters. Ukrainska Pravda notes that military personnel currently have no time for those tasks, overwhelmed as they are by mobilization work.

The combined structure would be called “Reserve+ Offices.” A source who spoke with Ukrainska Pravda said no one wants to “break the system” during the transformation of the TCR and SP. Debate during the reform discussions centered on who should be responsible for picking people up off the street. The Defense Ministry wants to assign that function to police officers, but the police are opposed. “Right now everything has stalled — there’s no consensus,” the source told Ukrainska Pravda.

Journalists note that draft notices can be served not only by TCR and SP staff but also by local government representatives and employers — though they “are trying to distance themselves from mobilization.” “In some places a village elder might say: ‘How can I go hand someone a draft notice? And if he dies tomorrow, how do I look his family in the eye?’” said Iryna Friz, a member of the Rada committee on national security, defense, and intelligence.

No timeline has been set for the start of the TCR and SP reform, according to sources. Defense Ministry, General Staff, and presidential office representatives are currently “filing down” and “fine-tuning” their concepts, which are later to be drafted into legislation, sources said.

How service terms are proposed to be limited

Demobilization has become one of the most contentious questions. The draft changes, as Ukrainska Pravda reports, envision a “contract approach” that would apply to both active-duty service members and new recruits.

Mobilized soldiers would be able to sign a contract with a guaranteed demobilization date and a deferral until the next call-up, while contract soldiers could renew their agreements. All would be offered three types of contracts with fixed service terms:

• 10 months for active-duty personnel in combat positions;
• 14 months for new recruits seeking combat positions;
• two years for all other positions.

Service members would also be able to choose their own positions — both combat and rear-area — a source told Ukrainska Pravda.

The plan also calls for raising rear-area military pay from 20,000 to 30,000 hryvnias (about $680) and roughly doubling commanders’ pay. Larger increases are planned for those who sign “combat contracts,” for whom a risk-based reward system called “10/20/40” would be introduced. A source described it to Ukrainska Pravda this way: “10,000 [hryvnias] per day for being at a position. 20,000 for strike-and-search operations (retaking lost positions, clearing). 40,000 for active offensive operations.”

In early May, when announcing the army reform plans, Zelensky called service terms “the most fundamental moral issue” and said the changes would make it possible, in particular, to begin discharging people who had been mobilized earlier.

A source who spoke with Ukrainska Pravda said the army reform is planned to begin specifically with service terms, because “uncertainty is what frightens people most” — and that the transformation of the TCR and SPs would follow. The changes “will happen within this year,” the source said.