That the Ukrainian army is battle worthy and capable of
fulfilling its defensive mission was the leitmotif of the speeches journalists
were allowed to hear on November 23 during the end-of-year session of the
Ministry of Defense collegium. This function was also attended by the newly
reelected Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Leonid Kuchma. However,
the President and the generals discussed further defense details in
camera. For there should be at least a suggestion of military secrets
in states.
Word has it that at first top ministry officials decided
to sum up their yearly activities precisely during the runoff campaign,
but they changed their mind at the last minute. Perhaps they wanted to
avert unnecessary accusations of mixing purely military and political matters.
But now Commander-in-Chief Leonid Kuchma and Minister of Defense, General
of the Army, Oleksandr Kuzmuk could confidently work out the details of
this country’s defense priorities without excessive stress. The generals
stick to the opinion that at present Ukraine cannot ignore military threats,
if only for the simple reason that our nonaligned state borders on seven
states, each of which has its own foreign political attitudes.
According to Mr. Kuchma, the Armed Forces have fully reached
the objectives set for this year. In future, Ukraine should intensify military
and military-technical contacts with both East and West, including NATO.
For the first time, Mr. Kuchma voiced in no uncertain terms his opinion
about the most suitable structure and strength of military units subordinated
to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Security Service, National Guard,
and the Ministry of Emergency Management. The President instructed Secretary
of the National Security and Defense Council Yevhen Marchuk to prepare
proposals to this effect within a month. He also called upon the General
Staff to make greater effort to improve the system of oversight and interaction
between the Defense Ministry, General Staff, the services, and operational
commands.
Ukraine has now an army at a total strength of 430,000,
including civilian servicemen. The army arsenal contains 230,000 pieces
hardware. This year the forces acquired 16 new types of armaments. The
army has even ordered another ten T-84 tanks, in addition to the 4,500
Ukraine already has. Only Russia perhaps has more of them.
This year the Armed Forces have shown some quite striking
instances of operational activity. The army has held over 50,000 maneuvers
of different levels, with some actions taking place for the first time
in Ukraine. For instance, large-scale maneuvers were held for the first
time to try out methods of deploying the Mobile Forces. Having flown 600
kilometers on airplanes across this country from east to west, the air
mobile troops immediately engaged in combat with a simulated enemy. The
aviation trained how to land on civilian highways, while the air defense
troops had an exercise on repelling a massive cruise missile attack on
Ukraine, with due account, of course, of the Yugoslav experience.
The military also does not forget about theory. General
Staff and Defense Ministry minds are already developing a model of the
Ukrainian Armed Forces for the next century. This model is to embrace everything
from how the soldier is outfitted to combat brigade structure.
True, when such wide-ranging tasks are dealt with, a question
at once arises: are they compatible with Ukraine’s financial capabilities?
Army requirements are now in fact met by only 34%. This means the army
is also able to do only about a third of its job. However, since all the
complexities of military buildup remain, as usual, behind closed doors
and secrecy, this explains to us the main thing. The Ministry of Defense
already knows perfectly well that the most important thing is victory on
the information front. We congratulate our military on this victory.







