A BIG START

On February 19 Verkhovna Rada passed in the first reading the Bill On Reforming the Armed Forces of Ukraine that details the goals and directions of the defense reform, envisions army strength reductions in 2004 and 2005, and provides for social protection of officers demobilized as part of the defense reform and their families.

Under the bill, the goal of the defense reform is to create a contemporary and mobile army equipped with state-of-the-art arms and hardware and capable of fulfilling its Constitutional duty of defending Ukraine, its independence, territorial integrity, and inviolability. An explanatory note to the bill reads that a total of UAH 2,383,600,000 is needed for the adaptation and employment of demobilized officers, payment of retirement benefits and compensation, and provision of housing for such officers. According to Defense Minister Yevhen Marchuk, who presented the bill in Verkhovna Rada, the 2004 state budget makes it possible to begin the reform in order to turn the army budget, of which 80% is currently spent on the upkeep of the army, from “a budget of degradation” into a budget of development and improvement of the professionalism of the military. He also told the lawmakers in as much detail as time allowed him about what steps will be taken to ensure adequate social protection of the officers. Apparently, his detailed account convinced the otherwise disagreeing lawmakers to support the bill.

It is essential that the co-reporter on this issue, parliamentary Defense and National Security Committee Chairman Heorhy Kriuchkov, said in turn that the committee considers the scale of reductions the best possible and recommends passing the bill in the first reading. The discussion continued in a purely political vein. Yet statements by opposition deputies, in particular their pure posing, did not affect the result of the vote.