Corrections to Be Made in Development Ukrainian Armed Forces

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.