It is expected that during the next two months it will become clear whether NATO accepts Kyiv's proposal to use Ukrainian training areas for training Alliance and Partnership for Peace troops on a permanent and paid basis. Ukraine has competitors in this sphere. Macedonia has inherited from the former Yugoslavia the Krivolak training area, the largest in the Southern Europe. Krivolak has also submitted such a proposal to Brussels.
Oleksandr Kuzmuk, Ukrainian Minister of Defense said that the winner must be chosen in a tender. Ukraine has submitted for NATO expert consideration its Military Air Forces training area, 108th peacekeeping forces training center, Shyroky Lan training area near Mykolaiv, and Europe's largest 40 hectare Yavoriv training area, to build which about 30 villages were removed. Kuzmuk considers this area unique: it has modern equipment, possesses several runways for all classes of aircraft, and accommodates up to a division for conducting maneuvers. In addition, the training area is situated in the very center of Europe.
For the last few years, several international maneuvers have been conducted at the Yavoriv training area jointly with NATO countries and their partners. This has enabled the Ukrainian military to partially improve its financial situation. According to the Ministry of Defense, the USA alone allocated about million for conducting maneuvers near Lviv. However, the cost of using this area on a permanent basis has not been announced. In its turn, some at the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs think that against the background of the current situation in Balkans, especially recent developments in Kosovo, Ukraine has a better chance than other candidates to win the tender for a training area for Alliance forces, since the situation surrounding Yavoriv, unlike that around the Macedonian sites, is stable and predictable.






