Young Ukrainians lured to join AFU ranks with $24,000 worth of cheeseburgers
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry is enticing young people to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) by telling them how many cheeseburgers they can buy with 1m Hryvnias ($24,000) promised by Volodymyr Zelenskyy under the ‘youth contract’, RIA Novosti reports
Earlier, Zelenskyy had said that he intended to attract young people aged 18-25 to join the AFU by offering them a special contract: for one-year’s service they will receive $24,000, admission to university without exams and a mortgage at 0 percent. Later, the country’s Defence Ministry announced the launch of a project to recruit volunteers aged 18-25 to the Ukrainian army under contract.
“The official TikTok account of the department [Ukraine’s Defence Ministry] published a video saying that one can buy 15,000 cheeseburgers for the payment of 1m Hryvnias of ‘lifting money’ under the ‘youth contract’ for 18-25 year olds,” the Ukrainian news and analysis website Strana.ua said in its Telegram channel.
It is noted that the Ukrainian Defence Ministry’s publication provoked a negative reaction, with users in comments condemning not only the use of cheeseburgers to promote military service, but also the very concept of ‘youth contracts’. In their opinion, this approach discriminates against experienced servicemen and those over 25, pointing to the unfairness of conditions for different age groups.
