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| PHÎÒÎ: UNIAN |
As Adm. Mykhailo Yezhel said, instead of this a decision was made “to look around the compartments”, in other words to evaluate what is going on in the army and attempt to reverse the degradation of the nation’s armed forces. Indeed, though salvaging the army at this point cannot be considered one of the priorities of the new administration, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief gave a truly positive impulse to the defense sector by appointing Yezhel the new Minister of Defense instead of Oleksandr Kuzmuk, as analysts had predicted. This allowed Yanukovych to chalk up his major brownie points in the military sphere.
2010 was officially announced the Year of Stabilization by the senior leadership of the armed forces. The plan is to halt the degrading of the army and start reforms in 2011. For this, the Ministry of Defense has started working on a new state program of development of the armed forces for 2011-2015.
In truth, as other reports from the Defense Ministry indicate, not many officers of this generation will serve in the reformed and modernized Ukrainian army. By the end of summer, the ministry plans to complete the Strategic Defense Bulletin for the period until 2025. The document stipulates that by 2015 military servicemen will be involved only in “preserving the possibilities of reviving the capacity of the armed forces”.
By 2020, the Ministry of Defense hopes to revive the army’s capacity and development and reform of the armed forces will only begin in 2021. We will not try to analyze the terminology and logic of the process.
Despite this, it is interesting how the top management of the military will manage to maintain without development and reforms in the army for 11 years. Moreover, the president promised that by that date the entire country will be reformed in all areas. It is noteworthy that the new leadership of the military is trying to preserve the officers’ backbone of the army, understanding clearly that if its manpower potential is lost, the Armed Forces will not only not make it to the year of reforms in 2021, but even to the year of stability in 2011.
According to the ministry, in 2008 a total of 3,286 officers quit the army and in 2009 this figure was 2,526. In the first four months of this year, already 915 officers got the walking papers.
Furthermore, rumors that the new government may increase the pension age of officers, thereby making military service totally unattractive. This is precisely why the new leadership in Ukraine tried to lure officers using the most effective age-proven method – a promise to provide them with state-subsidized housing and raise salaries. Nothing original but absolutely relevant, seeing as there are 45,085 servicemen waiting in line for government subsidized housing. The ministry announced its plans to provide military personnel with 3,440 apartments by the end of the year. For comparison, last year 85 apartments were provided and salaries of officers were raised by 55%. One would like to truly believe that the new minister is trying to improve the standard of living of his subordinates, but politicians and financiers are not interested in this. They have their own problems – the IMF, gas, the budget deficit and the economic crisis. This is why housing and financial issues are likely to remain real-time for good.
As for the very popular and populist issue of transition to a contract army that ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko promoted, the new team played on the correct use of prepositions during political canvassing. In the election program of Viktor Yanukovych, you can find a line: “I guarantee the transition to a contract army starting from 2011”. For some reason, many mistakenly interpreted his words as “a transition to a contract army in 2011”. That is why it came as a revelation when Yezhel said the process of transition will begin in 2011, though he failed to say when it would be completed.
The decision on conducting international training exercises on the territory of Ukraine adopted by the VR can be attributed to the minister’s obvious achievements. Though the Communists named the Party of Regions betrayers, the Sea Breeze exercises will be conducted in Ukraine. Yezhel, who first organized this exercise in 1997, will take care that it is held on the top level, even if they have to shoo off old babushkas from the parties of Vitrenko and Hrach, as ships must sail the high seas, aircraft must fly the skies and soldiers must practice target shooting.
And if only Americans had money for that, there is no place for air balloons with “NO to NATO” slogans that members of the PoR hung in the parliament last year. There is no evident progress in the widely advertised PR campaign to complete the construction and sale of the missile cruiser Ukraine. Although the issue was discussed at a number of meetings between Ukrainian and Russian officials, a practical decision has not been made. Experts, however, say that Russia will buy the cruiser anyway. In conditions of problems with the progress in the program of re-equipment of the Russian Navy, this will be an excellent opportunity to purchase a large, fantastic battleship quickly and for peanuts.
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