Air Force Will Be Brought into Line with Capabilities

Ukrainian Minister of Defense Volodymyr Shkidchenko says that the conclusions drawn by the Ministry of Ukraine regarding the reasons for the Lviv tragedy coincide with the ones found by the state commission: the direct reason for the accident was the crew’s digression from pilot task and pilot error. Among concurrent reasons he named faults in organizing and planning the aviation show in Lviv. During a hotline Friday Mr. Shkidchenko announced that the previous day he had “considered drawing up an order according to the results of the office investigation.”

The latter was aimed at ascertaining not technical reasons for the accident but officials’ neglect of duties, he said. Gen. Shkidchenko also noted that most officials understand their responsibility. “Four Generals of the Military Air Force of Ukraine have already resigned,” he said.

He noted that by his order some officials will be demoted and others incurred reprimands. In his interview with Interfax Ukraine the minister said that in the last ten years the number of planes in the Military Air Force of Ukraine was shorted more than two times, and by 2003- 2004 it will count around 300 battle planes: their quantity will be brought in line with the state’s economy potential. In his words, because of the extremely hard financial state of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, “an inoperative plane never took off, while used materiel was regularly written off.” Inventory of the arms, munitions, and material resources in the Armed Forces of Ukraine is held on annual basis, Mr. Shkidchenko stressed. He also said on the plans to modernize 115 battle planes. For 350 crafts airplane age will be prolonged. “Modernization is to be carried out in two stages, as it is envisaged by State Program for Developing Arms and Defense Technologies for the Period through 2010. In part, in the first stage (2002-2005) MiG29 and Su25 planes are to be modernized, while in the second period (2005-2010) it will be Su27 and Su24,” he said.