While the state is winning prestige, citizens are ready for anything
The idea of peacekeeping is becoming more and more popular in Ukraine as a relatively safe and effective way to improve the state’s image in the eyes of the world community and simultaneously to combat the poverty and unemployment of ordinary citizens. The Southern Operational Command is forming in Mykolayiv a repair and salvage battalion to be sent to the West African state of Sierra Leone now being torn by interethnic armed conflict. Yevhen SHVARTS, chief of the Zaporizhzhia city military recruitment office, shares with The Day his opinion on peacekeeping.
“You served in Afghanistan and know better than anyone the true price of peacekeeping. Do you think our politicians underrate the risk our soldiers take in Lebanon and now also in Sierra Leone?”
“I am not a politician. I am a serviceman who has to obey orders. Indeed, I served as commander of a mechanized infantry and then reconnaissance battalion in Afghanistan from 1984 to 1986. I have quite enough experience of dealing with land mines. I laid over a thousand land mines with my own hands. Whatever our politicians assert, the term hot spot is self- explanatory. Our boys serving now in the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon are undoubtedly at risk. It is absurd to speak about a higher or lower degree of risk, for you cannot measure or weigh it. Nobody is insured here.”
“If we go by the press, local residents of Lebanon call the Ukrainian peacekeepers gods. Unlike others, our soldiers do not get injured in the minefields. Does this testify to their high level of professionalism?”
“When one person saves the lives of the hundreds, he will indeed be an object of veneration. On the other hand, we remember Ukraine’s peacekeeping experience in the Balkans. According to those who came back, our battalion was treated like a gofer: fetch this, give this, and that was all. The attitude toward Ukraine as a country with an ailing economy had also been extended to its armed forces. We could feel this in everything — from derision to the level of remuneration for peacekeeping services. In Lebanon, our soldiers continue to be the lowest-paid servicemen.
Depending on specialty, the fixed rate of pay varies between $500 and $2000 a month. Yet, this is unimaginable wealth for our unemployed who make up the bulk of the battalion. They are ready to go through fire and water for such amounts.
“Now about professionalism. It takes two weeks at most to learn how to handle mines and two months to become an expert. But it takes all your life to become a professional in the traditional Western sense of the word. Those who went to Lebanon are professional drivers, builders, and welders. For we were told at the very outset to recruit specialists of precisely these professions. It was a complete surprise when 50% of the peacekeeping battalion servicemen trained in camp began to be retrained as combat engineers.”
“During their practice-fire course, military cadets are shown mines, which are practically impossible to dispose of. If memory does not fail me, one of these is the OZM-72. Was one month really enough for former drivers to get ready for this kind of explosive device?”
“I know the OZM-72. This really is a very smart trap. We used to find a simple way out. We would rush a herd of captured sheep across the mined area. There was no other way out. Yet, enemy craftsmen would prepare even smarter surprises for us. There was an approximately 20% probability of coming across such gifts in Afghanistan. I am not certain that there are no such devices in Lebanon. But it is impossible to say exactly what kind of explosive devices our boys have to deactivate. They can range from the most primitive wooden-case contraptions to smart mines. One can only suppose the Lebanese mostly used old Soviet makes. Long ago the USSR supplied the developing countries with enough weapons, equipment, and ammunition for many years to come.”
“How do our peacekeepers’ next of kin react to this mission? Did anybody come and ask to keep back their son or husband?”
“There have been no such cases. I repeat: peacekeeping is lucrative. For most, a foreign mission is their only chance to live a decent life in Ukraine. If only you saw what is going on next the recruitment office door! Sometimes it comes to brawls. The competition is three or four men per vacancy. We select the best and physically fittest. Still, we do not turn away other volunteers. We enter their names in a card index. They will come in handy some day. Lebanon and Sierra Leone are by no means the last hot spots where peacekeeping troops will be needed.”
“When supply does not meet demand, this triggers competition with such side effects as bribery, for example.”
“I take the hint. I can only answer for myself. There never has been and never will be this kind of thing in the recruitment office I’m in charge of and, I hope, in the others too. Yet, I can say without any qualms of conscience that I once lobbied the interests of one fellow. When we were forming the Sierra Leone team, he came to me with tears in his eyes. The guy’s father had died a year and a half before, and his mother six months later. He hadn’t been able find a job for six months. It was beyond my powers to turn him away.”
“As The Day was assured by Yevhen Horbyliev, Zaporizhzhia oblast military recruitment chief, the Ukrainian peacekeepers would only be doing repair and salvage operations in Sierra Leone. Are you afraid the Lebanese situation could be repeated, when our soldiers were first told one thing and then had to do something entirely different?”
“I will only be able to give a definite answer after the volunteers complete the retraining course they are now doing at the Mykolayiv training center. A repair and salvage battalion differs from an engineer battalion in terms of its principles and goals. They are two entirely different units. In any case, the knowledge will do them good. The situation in that country is tense. The peacekeepers have to be prepared for anything.”
If we go by Mr. Shvarts’s words, it takes from two weeks to two months to train a more or less proficient sapper. This raises a number of questions: would it not be better to teach our Lebanese brethren such a simple mine- disposal art instead of rushing our boys to minefields, luring them with high pay? Is it justifiable to run a risk, even the most insignificant, as the generals tirelessly repeat? And, finally, does it not occur to our politicians that as long as Ukraine agrees to play bit parts in geopolitics, nobody will offer it leads? And one more thing: in the developed countries that we want to pattern ourselves on, there is, for some reason, no excitement over UN peacekeeping offers.
COMMENT
The Day was told by the Ministry of Defense press service that our state began to make its contribution to peacekeeping endeavors after Verkhovna Rada adopted in 1992 Resolution No. 2538-12 On the Participation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Battalions in United Nations Peacekeeping Forces in the Conflict Zones on the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia. Since its passage, Ukrainian peacekeepers have seen service in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Eastern Slavonia, Guatemala, Tajikistan, and Angola. In these countries, our warriors guarded humanitarian convoys, in Kosovo they supervised elections “to ensure their openness and fairness,” in Sarajevo they took part in the reconstruction of schools and hospitals along with the repairs of roads and high-voltage lines. As of today, a total 120,000 Ukrainian servicemen have been involved in peacekeeping operations, including one general, 2125 commissioned and 1059 noncommissioned officers, and over 8500 soldiers. Ukraine’s participation in peacekeeping operations has taken a toll of 19 dead and 60 wounded.
Lt. Col. Kostiantyn KHIVRENKO, deputy spokesman of the Ministry of Defense, thinks the peacekeeping missions bring Ukraine not only honor but also profit. At a conservative estimate, the Ukrainian side has invested about $30 million in the cause of peace and has reaped a profit of about $74 million. Ihor HRUSHKO, spokesman of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also points to a host of positive sides in the participation in international peacekeeping operations. In his opinion, this is a good foundation for Ukrainian servicemen to gain valuable professional experience, establish good contacts, and, hence, promote economic cooperation. Mr. Hrushko does not accept the claim that Ukraine plays secondary, if not still lower, roles in peacekeeping forces, for the UN extends invitations to take part in such actions on its own initiative. Many countries, he says, are still “on the waiting list” for this kind of invitation. So the fact that Ukraine is being approached for help testifies to our country’s growing prestige.
