Handcuffs From Americans
With the Kolchuha scandal taking a new turn in Ukraine, the US government has put on hold its military and technical aid to Ukraine’s armed forces. However, the stoppage will not affect the law enforcement and agencies set up to fight international terrorism. A week has not passed after this statement when Americans proved they do put their money where their mouth is.
October 17, a ceremony of handing over of a large shipment of military hardware to Ukraine’s border troops was held in the presence of US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual. Specimens of hardware earmarked for Mohyliv-Podilsky and Odesa border garrisons will be put on display on the premises of one of Kyiv’s garrisons. In particular, the aid package consists of 2 UAZ and 4 Gazelle cars, 22 GAZ trucks, a set of wireless stations, handcuffs, barbed obstacles for roadblocks, and cabinets for storing firearms.
Ever since late last year foreign politicians have been keeping a watchful eye on Ukraine’s borders which will soon hem the EU’s outer frontier. And although they recognize Ukraine’s major role in ensuring stability and fighting illegal migration in the region, the technical equipment of border troops still leaves much to be desired.
A month ago, on September 17, Kyiv saw a presentation of the first project launched jointly by the State Border Committee, the European Commission, and the Program for UN Development in Ukraine. The presentation was in fact a summing up of the results of the six months of joint work. Over this period, some 450,000 euro has been spent on the project, in the course of which officers of the border troops have undergone training in Spain, Germany, and Austria, foreign specialists have delivered a series of special lectures in Ukraine, 57 UAZ cars, 36 night vision devices, and 25 portable passport control devices have been purchased. This equipment is already on its way to the Ukrainian-Belarusian stretch of the border.
Incidentally, foreign technical aid is, without doubt, an absolute necessity in Ukraine. But it needs to be mentioned that, even without Western assistance, measures that have been taken in Ukraine over the past three years have helped to considerably improve the security of our borders and create a modern infrastructure of checkpoints.
In the nine months of this year, border guards for the first time detained more trespassers from among foreign nationals attempting to illegally enter Ukraine (972 persons) than those attempting to immigrate to Western Europe (920 persons). This is evidence that the issue of the alleged penetrability of our borders is, at the least, open to question.
