President Gave Account Of Promises

500 junior and senior officers from all Ukrainian regions listened to the President's lengthy speech which was planned as an account of his years of presidency. It dealt only with the positive: stabilization of the economy, halting the slump in output, an upsurge in agriculture, the making of the banking and tax system, increased international authority, and peace in a country where there is no war and national harmony reigns. "I have fulfilled the main strategic task of the five-year period: to maintain political stability in the state and preserve civic peace," said Mr. Kuchma, adding this was "without exaggeration, an exception among the post-Soviet countries." However, on July 13, Latvian members of Parliament, while meeting chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee for Social Policies and Labor Yevhen Marchuk, said their country, of course, has problems but the Latvian population does not know what wage or pension arrears are. True, even Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Volodymyr Horbulin points out, as UNIAN reports, this country's growing dependence on fuel supplies and his own concern over shadowization in the economy. And Deputy Premier Serhiy Tyhypko said on July 13 the Ukrainian economy is on the brink of collapse.

The President admitted there are no cheap and strong armies. So he promised to make a personal effort to supply the army with up-to-date equipment and armaments, put an end to such social maladies as lack of accommodations and pay arrears, although this is, of course, closely connected with general economic growth in the country. However, for the officers to have enough stamina to await such economic growth, the Commander-in-Chief announced he had signed a decree whereby the Armed Forces servicemen have had salaries increased by 40% as of July 1. This at last slightly perked up the audience, which had been grimly heeding the President's conceptual theses, and even drew some applause.

The army also had something to boast of to the President. According to Minister of Defense Oleksandr Kuzmuk, the Armed Forces have not lost combat readiness. In spite of very limited funding, the army is mastering new methods and equipment for carrying out military actions. This year, heavy bombers will for the first time test-fire cruise missiles. New sophisticated equipment has been adopted, including Bars homing warheads for anti-aircraft missiles. For the first time, military highbrows have begun the long-term restructuring of Ukrainian army combat units, to be completed by the year 2010. "These will be twenty-first century units," General Kuzmuk said.

As to the best representatives of Ukrainian officers, they, as befits the military, confined themselves precisely to eight minutes in their speeches at this democratic meeting. A popular theme running through the speeches was the expectation that next year the army will remain with the current President. Of course, Mr. Kuchma had no special complaints about this. The point is whether the garrisons stationed far away from Bankova Street have complaints about the President. Of course, this is not a theme for ceremonial functions.

THE DAY'S INFORMATION

What is our army like in terms of figures? It turned out that if you take all equipment and weapons, it will suffice to line up two columns 2200 kilometers long, that is, from Kyiv to London. One overall salvo of all Ukrainian armaments means 60,000 tons of ammunition, an equivalent to three A-bombs dropped on Hiroshima. One instance of fueling is 100,000 tons or 2,000 fuel tanks. An overall daily ration amounts to 1,700 tons of food. Total manpower is 310,000.