You're reading: Yanukovych orders checks on reports about failures to pay Ukrainian peacekeepers

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has ordered checks to be carried out urgently into reports of the non-fulfillment by the Ukrainian government of financial liabilities to servicemen participating in the United Nations peacekeeping missions.

If this information is confirmed those guilty will be held to account, the presidential press service said on Feb.7.

After the Verkhovna Rada took a decision on the redeployment of the Ukrainian peacekeeping contingent from Liberia to Ivory Coast, MP Yaroslav Sukhy (the Regions Party) said there was a difference in the salaries of Ukrainian peacekeepers compared to peacekeepers from other states, even though there is a single source of financing of these salaries.

"The question is shameful: why our peacekeepers receive the salary several times lowers than the same servicemen of Ghana and countries like Madagascar. This is the question. The funds are allocated by the United Nations Organization. Where do our funds [disappear to]? Of course, this question worries me," he said.

There were reports in the Ukrainian mass media that a member of the public council at the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Yuriy Donsky, stated that Ukrainian peacekeepers receive one of the lowest salaries.

"[Their salary is] almost at the level of the countries of Africa. I don’t understand such a position by the government, as four months ago the Defense Ministry sent an offer to the cabinet to increase the salary of Ukrainian peacekeepers to $3,700. But still our offer has not been considered by the Finance Ministry," he said.