Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn has asked Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to submit to parliament a draft law on determining the strength of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
"The Ukrainian Armed Forces have been outlawed for the third year in row. [Former President Viktor Yuschenko did not submit [a respective bill], and now [President] Yanukovych has not submitted a bill on the strength of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for two years," Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defense Anatoliy Hrytsenko told the Verkhovna Rada chairman.
"This is his [the president’s] direct constitutional duty," Hrytsenko stressed and added that the committee had drawn the president’s attention to the necessity of submitting a respective bill three times since September 2010.
Hrytsenko said that it is necessary to define the number of servicemen in the armed forces for financial and defense planning of activity of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In turn, Lytvyn charged the secretariat of the parliament with sending a corresponding address to the head of state.
"As for the number of servicemen in the Armed Forces, I ask that an address to the president on the issue be prepared," the speaker said.
