By Serhiy Yevseyev
Representatives of Ukrainian army senior command often talk about "improving the structure of the Army" at official levels. But even the title of the Commander in Chief’s decree is clear enough, On reducing the number of officers, corporals, and warrant officers in army, law enforcement organizations and other military organizations of Ukraine 15,000 career soldiers retired last year.
But the process began long before the decree was issued for very different reasons. For example:
A new luxury BMW stopped next to me. The door swung open and a man got out, followed by a bodyguard. I took a closer look at this moneybag and... could not believe my eyes. It was my classmate from the military school Dym Kravchenko. He also recognized me and we hugged each other. After graduating from the military school, he served in Zabaikalye, then Kursk. After some time he retired and moved to Kyiv; he wanted to transfer to Ukrainian army but things didn’t work out. Then he became a businessman sold electrical appliances in Poland and clothes in Ukraine, invested his money very carefully, no MMM of course, but then he did manage to start his own business.
«Come on, today's a holiday; my second daughter was born.»
I could not believe this was same old Krava, who drove all the officers in the school crazy being so muddle-headed...
The decision came quickly to Serhiy Litvak to exchange his officer's uniform for a commercial kiosk; his father-in-law has a big private firm, so it would not take long to move on and start climbing the corporate ladder, but... it did, and the father-in-law's company seemed to have disappeared. He returned to the service.
Volodymyr Poloznyk was a good officer, but wearing the uniform puts you within limits that one day he began to dislike. He retired and became a security guard: 24 hours of work and three days at home. He looked for better work. After some time a firm hired him as a auto mechanic, and he climbed the corporate ladder all the way up to senior manager. He is certain that anyone can find his place in life under any economic conditions. The point is to want and to work.
Sad to say but 107 military men left the army in 1997 in a very special way: they committed suicide. And not only because of veterans hazing green recruits. For instance, a first year cadet of the Kyiv military engineering transport institute committed suicide after three months there by blowing his head off with a Kalashnikov rifle. He left a note about getting a bad grade, being misunderstood by his classmates, and hazing by upperclassmen. I would like to note, that such things are possible in military school.
In the past suicides were connected with things like love, duty, honor, but now things have changed.
I had to spend a few days in the military hospital. My roommate was a hard-built man who mostly slept. As I soon found out, he was from the mental department and was receiving special treatment. It turned out that Oleksandr was an aviation technician, 37 years old, and married with two children. He had attempted suicide in a state of temporary insanity but remembers nothing about it. He says: "You see, nobody needs anyone and you can’t change it."
At present there is no government program for the social protection of former military men, and none is likely in the near future. This was reported by the Defense Ministry representatives at a briefing on this problem. The main reason is the lack of money. Who will help the former officers? They create various unions and organizations. Today there are 165 officers companies, firms, and enterprises. The head of Ukrainian Association of Retired Officers, retired Major General Volodymyr Fedyrko says: "Our slogan is: we help ourselves."






