Cabinet Resolution #602 of May 13, 2026

Who is affected: people with disabilities caused by war; combatants and injured participants of the Revolution of Dignity; former prisoners of concentration camps and ghettos; persons forcibly taken for forced labor; family members of deceased veterans and Defenders of Ukraine; people with special merits before the Motherland.

Summary:

The resolution establishes the amounts of the annual one-time payment by 24 August 2026 as follows:

  • people with Group I disabilities caused by war and former juvenile prisoners of concentration camps with disabilities — 3,100 UAH;
  • people with Group II disabilities — 2,900 UAH;
  • people with Group III disabilities — 2,700 UAH;
  • people with special merits before the Motherland — 3,100 UAH;
  • combatants, injured participants of the Revolution of Dignity, former underage prisoners — 1,000 UAH;
  • family members of deceased veterans and Defenders of Ukraine — 650 UAH;
  • participants of the war, former prisoners of concentration camps, people taken for forced labor, children of partisans — 450 UAH.

What is right:

The payment covers not only veterans themselves, but also family members of the deceased. This is recognition that the loss of a breadwinner and defender is not only a personal tragedy, but also a social risk that the state must take into account. The inclusion of victims of Nazi persecution alongside participants in the current war is symbolically important: it is a reminder that Ukraine remembers different generations of those who suffered from aggression.

What is wrong:

The payment amounts increasingly fail to correspond to the real cost of living. The annual indexation of these payments is clearly not keeping pace with wartime inflation, and the gap between the symbolic gesture and real support grows every year. Overall, the annual one-time payment looks like an ineffective support mechanism in conditions of constantly rising living costs.

Alternative solution:

The payment amounts should correlate to a real economic indicator, such as the subsistence minimum or the average pension, with automatic recalculation every year without the need to adopt a separate resolution each time. This would remove the question of whether payments are keeping up with inflation and would make the system predictable for recipients. The scale itself should be reviewed in light of the realities of the current war: a payment to family members of fallen Defenders cannot be half the amount paid to a combatant. This contradicts the logic of social justice and the public sense of who has made the greatest sacrifice.

What happened:

The resolution is an annual technical document that specifies the amounts of payments provided for by the laws on the status of veterans and victims of Nazi persecution. The tradition of payment for Independence Day is established, only the amounts change. In the context of full-scale war, when the category of “combatant” is being replenished every day with new defenders, and the number of family members of the fallen is steadily growing, the issue of revising the very logic, amounts, and priorities of these payments is becoming increasingly relevant. Until this revision happens, the annual resolution will remain a ritual of recognition — symbolically important, but insufficient as a tool of real support.