Defence Ministry of Ukraine uncovered some details about the Concept for Further Armed Forces Reform till 2015, which has been developed under the General Staff of Armed Forces. It has been planned to reduce armed forces by 20%, and “get rid of an excess of weapons, military equipment, and infrastructure.” Current number of armed forces is approximately 200 thousand people, both civilian and military — reports the newspaper “Ukrayina Moloda”. According to the preliminary plans, the Armed Forces in 2015 were to number 100 thousand, but on the condition that by this time Ukraine would be a NATO-member and would acquire collective security guarantees, said the director of military programs of Razumkov Centre Mykola Sungurovskyi. Now, when the government abandoned the choice of pursuing NATO membership, the army should be, on contrary, increased, since the scope of tasks has increased and the country, if necessary, should be able to protect itself. “But due to the current terms of army financing, even if to increase funds, the money will only cover a personnel maintenance, with no training and armament,” Sungurovskyi said, “At this level of financing an army of 110–140 thousand people can be maintained, but if to increase the standards to Central European level, then the same funds can hold only 50–60 thousand army.” According to the expert, plans to reduce the Armed Forced by 20% represent a forced step. “Now the main task is to maintain what the armed forces remain today. A reduction, in order not to be ”reckless“, should not be applied to officers, but to the infrastructure. For example, if we get rid of the unnecessary military camps, the need to keep the personnel for their protection will also disappear. In this way, the army can be really reduced by 15–20 thousand,” Sungurovskyi said. |
