Parliament claims responsibility for slowing down military reform

The Verkhovna Rada’s morning session began on June 3 with the same old scenario, with four opposition factions — Communist, Socialist, BYuT, and Our Ukraine — blocking access to the podium and demanding that a number of issues be given the highest priority (e.g., bills allocating hidden 2004 budget disbursements and privatizing the Kryvorizhstal steel combine). Both issues have a long history, of course, but this time OU MPs again accused the government of stashing away UAH 10 billion in the 2004 budget, along with UAH 5 billion concealed in the Pension Fund. Responding to similar accusations on many previous occasions, cabinet officials issued statements condemning such allegations as nothing more than political campaign stunts. Conflicting interests of several financial-industrial groups that are “established” in both the government and the opposition seem to be at the heart of the Kryvorizhstal case. In the end, the people’s deputies refused to hear the Kryvorizhstal privatization proposal. In order to get the deputies back on track, Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn had to resort to threatening his colleagues with the premature termination of the fifth VR session if efforts to block parliament continued. At a meeting of faction leaders during an intermission, Mr. Lytvyn formulated the issue thus: “Will there be a Verkhovna Rada or not, will parliament continue its work or terminate it before the presidential elections are held?”

Among the documents enacted by parliament that Thursday, two were of great importance for Ukraine, specifically the bill amending the law “On the Strength of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” which calls for manpower reductions to the tune of 70,000 in 2004, and the other introducing changes in the law “On the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” which outlines a transition to three branches of the armed services. Defense Minister Yevhen Marchuk presented both bills, with Heorhy Kriuchkov, head of the Parliamentary Committee, as co-rapporteur. Mr. Marchuk again emphasized that military reform is an issue long overdue in Ukraine, and that further procrastination would drastically exacerbate the situation in the national army. He added that numerical strength is not what determines an armed forces’ combat capability but the availability of modern materiel and up-to- date personnel training. Mr. Marchuk stated that the proposed manpower reductions will have no damaging effect on the Ukrainian army’s combat capability, but his arguments, unfortunately, had little effect on the legislators. Only 202 deputies out of 422 voted in favor. Does this mean that all the other people’s deputies are willing to be silent observers of the continuing degradation of the most complex system known as the “army,” which will have the gravest consequences, as the defense minister warned? This is a purely rhetorical question. True, the draft law calling for the creation of three branches of the armed forces was passed with 368 votes in favor and one against. From now on, the rocket and air defense troops will be reorganized as a single armed service, the Air Force. As the defense minister stressed, this will increase its effectiveness and, most importantly, will reduce spending by nearly 40 percent.