Putin orders new approach to military compensation payments based on severity of injury

Vladimir Putin ordered the increase of one-time compensation payments for severely wounded soldiers from 3 million rubles (€28,500) to 4 million (€38,100) on Thursday, just a day after he instructed the government to lower payouts for those with minor injuries. 

Since 2022, all military personnel wounded in the war in Ukraine have been entitled to a single payment of 3 million rubles irrespective of the severity of their injury. That policy ended just two hours after Putin ordered that the size of each payout be made dependent on the severity of the injury sustained on Wednesday. 

Under the new rules, only soldiers whose injuries result in disability will receive 3 million rubles, while those with minor injuries will be eligible for up to 1 million rubles (€9,500), with some injuries being compensated for by as little as 100,000 rubles (€950).

Those seriously injured before the decree came into force will remain entitled to additional payments, however, which are to be funded by the state-run Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation, which is headed by Putin’s cousin, Anna Tsivileva.

The decision to categorise the payment structure for war-related injuries was criticised by some pro-war Telegram channels, some of whom pointed out that it would result in soldiers receiving less compensation overall. 

Telegram channel Rybar, which reportedly has ties to Russia’s Defence Ministry, warned of the dangers inherent in differentiating between levels of injury, which it argued would “definitely lead to room for the dual interpretation of certain cases”.