Armed Forces’ 2002 Budget is Social in a Military Way

“Ukraine’s defense budget is not only below that of the NATO countries and our neighbors but also less than last year,” Major General Valery Muntiyan, aide to the Minister of Defense on issues of budget and economic and financial activity, told a January 21 briefing. Under the approved budget, this year the Defense Ministry can count on a mere UAH 3.291 billion (UAH 732.2 million to come from special funds), which is 1.32% of forecast GDP. Of this, 255 million will go toward the Program of the Armed Forces Reform, 100 million will be spent on munitions and hardware, with hardware maintenance to cost another 50 million. Over 450 million will be spent on logistical support and 15 million on new housing for officers. According to Gen. Muntiyan, the Defense Ministry requires at least a billion more hryvnias to solve the most pressing problems of the Armed Forces reformation. Answering the question of The Day’s Vyacheslav DARPINIANTS, Mr. Muntiyan stressed it is unclear whether the overall budget of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as the forecast 6% GDP growth could be stalled by foreign market realities, and “even now only half of what was initially planned has been achieved.” Speaking about the threatening trend of the moral and physical obsolescence of hardware and 51,000 officers waiting for apartments and other problems of the Ukrainian military, Gen. Muntiyan stressed that last year’s budget of the Armed Forces was fulfilled only 83.3%. As the main reason he cited the failure of Naftohaz Ukrayiny to clear its liabilities of UAH 260 million to the Defense Ministry for strategic bombers sold to Russia.