“We are building the Armed Forces to effectively secure our defenses and for enthusiastic applause from the West,” Ukraine’s Defense Minister General of the Army Oleksandr Kuzmuk declared in Kyiv on May 31, detailing new plans for the armed forces.
On May 29, the National Security and Defense Council, jointly with the President, adopted a revised program for the development of the Armed Forces covering the period till 2005. The key objective is for Ukraine to have a battle worthy, modern, mobile, affordable army and optimal size. The program envisages reducing its strength to 295,000 military personal, and 80 civilians. These indices are to be achieved by 2005.
Today, the armed forces number 310,000 military personal and 90,000 civilians, meaning that the annual reduction will amount to 5,000. The new proposed reduction is not very big, considering that in 1991 Ukraine had 870,000 in the armed services.
Kuzmuk also announced reductions in military arsenal that includes 400 tanks, 280 aircraft, 189 helicopters, and 11 warships. He stated that these reductions are closely connected with structural changes intended to enhance the army’s readiness. In particular, excess command units will be reduced, and in the ground forces brigades will replace 5 mechanized divisions, which should make them more mobile and stronger. The Ukraine’s armed forces will subsequently consist not only of regular formations, but also formations designed to carry out specific missions, like front-line defense forces, basic defense forces, and strategic reserves. Finally, the army will be placed on a professional footing as of 2005.
Starting in 2001, the state budget will have a separate expense item for military reform. According to the Defense Minister, personnel maintenance and training allocations will be reduced to an absolutely indispensable minimum. This year, the state budget will provide Ukraine’s armed forces only 40 percent of its needs.
Interestingly, Kyiv’s announcement of the new defense guidelines almost coincided with US Secretary Madeleine Albright’s speech in Florence last week where she said that the Ukraine’s military structure remains the way it was under the Soviets, and that its military reforms have not brought it any closer to NATO’s standard. (More on the new Ukraine’s military strategy in one of the forthcoming issues.)
