Ukraine has seen peacekeepers off to Liberia
“You must all come back alive and wealthy,” Commander-in-Chief of the Land Forces of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Petro Shuliak said in his farewell speech to the Ukrainian peacekeepers leaving to Liberia. Last Saturday the first party of the 128-persons mission left from Mykolayiv to uneasy Liberia, on whose territory civil war is lasting for over fourteen years. The same day Kherson oblast saw the ceremony of seeing off the peacekeepers of the Fifty-Sixth Detached Helicopter Squadron. In general, the Ukrainian contingent in this West African country will consist of 286 military men.
It was not accident that the commander stressed his wish that all the peacekeepers came back home alive. Information on death of Ukrainian soldiers’ have already come from Iraq and Sierra Leone, where our military also carry out a peacekeeping mission. In addition, “The deaths in Iraq are not losses in action but a result of negligence in dealing with arms and technique,” Col. Gen. Petro Shuliak stressed. Recently, while training the peacekeepers, considerable attention was focused on preventing mistakes similar to those resulting in soldiers’ deaths in Sierra-Leone. In the words of Petro Shuliak, “We are learning from these mistakes, carefully selecting the personnel for carrying out peacekeeping tasks, and, naturally, giving special attention to training the crews and preparing the technique.” The guys who are to defend peace far away from their native country admit that they had enough time for training. Though officially the preparations for the Liberia mission began no sooner than Verkhovna Rada passed a respective decision early last December, the military have been mastering professional skills for years. The last two months were dedicated to mostly specialized training: in addition to everything else, the soldiers were being familiarized with local Liberian specifics. The Defense Ministry of Ukraine reported that the first stage envisaged mostly classes on flights management and refreshing the skills of the air crew. The military were also familiarized with Liberian weather conditions as well the rules for takeoffs and landings on dusty grounds in the conditions of high temperature and humidity.
Far from every military man could become part of the peacekeeping team. Although it proved impossible to get any official information on the course of the military casting, 23-old Andriy Kolesnykov, who is going to Liberia next month, told The Day that every candidate had to meet high criteria of physical condition as well as professional skills. Incidentally, all the peacekeepers are volunteers. To go to the hot spot, they had to get consent from their wives or parents. The peacekeepers cite very similar motives of their wish to go to Liberia.
For most of them, this is a chance to test their professionalism and augment their experience. They stress their concern for the fate of the people witnessing bloodshed for decades.
Commander-in-Chief of the Land Forces Petro Shuliak said that over 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers have come through peacekeeping in the last twelve years. Today over 3000 Ukrainians are on peacekeeping missions in Kosovo, Lebanon, Sierra-Leone, and Iraq. “Using their skills, our military is doing everything possible to ensure that peace is established and people stop being killed. For its decent contribution in the international arena Ukraine receives high marks from various states and organizations”, Petro Shuliak stressed. Suffice it to recall that it was UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who turned personally to Leonid Kuchma with a request to send peacekeepers to Liberia. However, though in the executive branch decisions were made quite promptly, some problems appeared with the parliamentary approval: it took the deputies three attempts to collect the required number of voices, which can hardly improve Ukraine’s image. Much has been said on the advantages of the participation in peacekeeping operations. First, the current peacekeepers, who have obtained their skills not from books, will constitute a decent basis for our future professional army. Second, Ukraine’s appropriate presentation on the international arena will add to its image as a contributor to global security. Evidence to this is the fact that the small Baltic states that are to enter the alliance in a few months have never ignored requests to take part in peacekeeping missions (though, since their armies are not numerous, their contingents sometimes consisted of less than ten people).
However, no matter what the strategic calculations are, human life is what matters above all else. “We don’t need any extra risks,” Colonel General Petro Shuliak passed the words of Defense Minister Yevhen Marchuk to the Ukrainian military. “May you always have as many landings as takeoffs,” the relatives wished to the parting peacekeepers.
