Ukrainian Military to Invite Thrill-Seekers?

It is not excluded that in the immediate future military health centers will be host not only Ukrainian servicemen on leave and their families but also foreign tourists. In particular, as The Day was told by the chief of the tourism and excursions department at the Ministry of Defense Colonel Oleksandr Drofa, a number of tour agents stated at the Ukraine-99 international tourist salon recently held in Kyiv that their customers wish to be offered what is known as bare- knuckle tourism.

According to Col. Drofa, quite a few foreign tourists, first of all from Great Britain, Austria, Libya, etc., want to spend holidays at Ukrainian military health centers and even to play Rambo, i.e., to parachute from a plane, take a boat joyride in the Black Sea at a breakneck speed, see the top-security underground submarine repair plant at Balaklava, descend at the depth of fifty meters in a Ukrainian naval submergible craft, see old catacombs, etc.

In Col. Drofa’s words, it is no problem offering such experiences. The problem is to live and develop in the bare-knuckle conditions of our state. For the military as well as civilians are, on the one hand, being stifled by high taxes: it turns out that military bases are registered as state- run enterprises and have to pay taxes (?! —Ed. ). On the other hand, Ukrainian laws widely differ, as far as the armed forces’ economic activities are concerned: while one law explicitly permits something, another forbids it.

As the Ministry of Defense tourism and excursions department chief told The Day, the military themselves take care of domestic tourism by force of tradition. Energetic people, including foreigners, are being offered even now some interesting holidays at Ministry of Defense health centers. The latter organize various walking, mountaineering, cycle-racing, aquatic competitions, championships, and gives vacationers the chance to test themselves in sports, orienting and surmounting water obstacles on collapsible floating facilities. Although tourists want to directly participate in combat actions, they are so far only allowed to cook food in field, using forest berries and mushrooms, to rescue and assist the wounded, and to take part in transporting the sick to home base.

THE DAY ’S REFERENCE

According to Lt. Col. Ihor Pohanovsky, deputy chief of the tourism and excursions department at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, there are four military tourist centers today. Each of these centers can admit an average 8000 holiday-makers a year, with one day costing an average $10-20.