Maksym Kishka/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Ukraine has a new plan to pay civilian volunteers up to $2,400 a month to track and shoot down Russian drone threats.
The measure, which allows civilians to use their hunting guns and cars to destroy aerial targets, was approved on Wednesday by Ukrainian lawmakers, per Taras Melynchuk, a Cabinet representative in Kyiv’s parliament.
Melynchuk wrote on Telegram that the program aims to “strengthen the air defense” of Ukraine, and it comes as growing waves of Russian Shahed drones have hammered its cities.
A full draft of the proposal, published by parliament member Oleksiy Goncharenko, shows that volunteers can receive up to 100,000 hryvnias, or about $2,426, a month — depending on their level of contribution.
The full payout would be a hefty sum for many Ukrainians. By comparison, government statistics said the average monthly salary in Ukraine was 14,577 hryvnias, or about $353, per the last-recorded figures from January 2022, the month before the war began.
Data from Work.UA, a local job site that assesses salaries listed in job postings and résumés, shows that the average monthly wage offered in Ukraine had risen to 24,241 hryvnias by June 10.
Funds for the air defense volunteers would come from local governments’ budgets, and payout amounts are determined by commanders in the Territorial Defense Forces units stationed in the area.
These commanders are meant to work with volunteers through a group leader who reports on personnel and activities monthly, the proposal added.
The document said that volunteers can use supplies from Ukraine’s forces if needed, but also have the “right to use their own vehicles, other equipment, as well as personal hunting weapons, small arms, and other types of weapons and ammunition.”
Goncharenko said the approved vehicles include personal cars. That’s relevant because much of Ukraine’s anti-drone defense has relied on units that drive out at night to shoot down Russian uncrewed aerial vehicles with truck- or car-mounted small arms. Officials have said that the country has about 500 such mobile units.
They’re typically armed with a lot more firepower than a hunting rifle, though; official anti-drone squads often use machine guns such as the M2 Browning. On the other hand, drone units frequently use shotguns to shoot down first-person view drones on the battlefield.
Goncharenko added that anyone not mobilized under Ukraine’s forces can sign up to volunteer.
This new project also aims to bring drone pilots from existing volunteer and paramilitary units under the defense ministry’s wing, though they’ll need to show a training certificate to be approved.
Families of anyone who dies while fighting in a volunteer air defense unit are also eligible for one-time cash payouts and pension benefits that the relatives of veterans get, the proposal added.
Ukraine’s new volunteer plan emerges as Russia has intensified its night-time drone attacks, which now regularly involve hundreds of Iranian-made Shaheds fired in tandem with dozens of missiles at Ukrainian cities.
The approved measure is set to last for as long as two years, or until martial law concludes in Ukraine.
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