Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence has instructed military units to continue paying service pay to missing service personnel until a legally defined ground for stopping payments arises.
This is stated in the ministry’s announcement.
“The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has instructed all military units to pay service pay to service personnel reported missing until a legally defined ground for stopping payments appears: a court ruling declaring the person missing, or a death certificate entry,” the ministry said.
The Ministry of Defence circulated the relevant separate instruction No. 4264/ud dated 23 September 2026 to military command bodies, military units, institutions and organisations.
The ministry stressed that it is prohibited to stop paying service pay solely on the basis of documents confirming identification of a body, or other documents not предусмотрені by law.
Service pay for a missing service member is paid monthly on the basis of an order issued by the commander of the military unit, institution or organisation.
Payments must continue until:
a court ruling declaring the service member missing enters into legal force;
the date the death certificate entry is drawn up, inclusive.
The final deadline for payments is the day the service member is removed from the personnel lists of the military unit.
The ministry explained that identifying a body and the official state registration of death are different legal procedures. The mere existence of documents confirming identification of a body is not defined by law as grounds for stopping service pay.
“In some military units, payments were suspended as soon as documents confirming identification of a body appeared. Legislation does not define such documents as grounds for stopping payments. As a result, families were left without payments even before the death or the service member’s status had been officially established. The instruction removes this ambiguity and requires the law to be applied consistently across the entire armed forces,” Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine Liubov Halan emphasised.
The document was issued in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On the Social and Legal Protection of Service Personnel and Members of Their Families” and the government procedure for payments to captured, interned and missing service personnel.
The ministry also said it plans to amend Order No. 280. It is to clearly stipulate that removing a service member from the personnel lists due to death is possible only on the basis of a death certificate entry.