Ukraine could soon be leasing vast areas of its territory as training grounds for NATO in a move that is bound to enrage Russia.
According to Defense Ministry spokesman Konstantin Khivrenko, a delegation of 35 senior U.S. Army officers has visited the Yavoriv military training field in the Lviv oblast in western Ukraine to check out the ground’s suitability for NATO military exercises.
Khivrenko said NATO would rent the training field for its own troops’ maneuvers or exercises with Ukrainian troops.
‘We need a full picture of the field’s capabilities,’ said Lee Gable, deputy military attache at the American embassy: He said the final decision on whether to use the area will be made by NATO headquarters.
The Yavoriv training ground, with an area of 40,000 square kilometers, is the largest in Europe. It was built after World War Two during Stalin’s rule and the inhabitants of 29 villages were forcibly driven out to make room for the military. Those who did not want to go were sent to concentration camps in Siberia.
The Yavoriv training ground was regarded as the best facility of its kind in the Soviet Union and was used for military exercises by Warsaw Pact troops.
The idea to use the training field was the Ukrainian government’s. ‘It was Ukraine’s initiative,’ a Western military source told the Post.
Ukraine’s army, like that in Russia and other ex-Soviet republics, has been badly hit by the Soviet collapse and ensuing economic problems. According to Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk, the 1.6 billion hryvna (about $762 million) his ministry was allocatted in 1998 only covers 46 percent of the army’s needs. The draft budget for 1999 earmarks an ‘unrealistic’ 1.3 billion hryvna ($620 million) for the ministry, and ‘the consequences of that decision might be tragic,’ Kuzmuk told government officials while pleading to them to allocate more money for the army.
Leasing military training grounds to NATO is one way Ukraine apparently hopes to raise the funds for its army that it so desperately needs. Ukrainian and Western military officials contacted by the Post declined to say how much renting out the training grounds would bring government coffers.
British soldiers have twice held training exercises with Ukrainian troops on Ukraine’s territory, according to Ben White, spokesman for the British Ministry of Defense. The first time was between September and October in 1996 at the Yavoriv training ground.
The second time British, Ukrainian and Polish air forces flew training exercises in Mykolayiv oblast. White said British troops are also planning joint infantry exercises in Ukraine next year.
Apart from the lucrative income from renting out the training fields Ukraine can also count on NATO upgrading the equipment at the sites and bringing them up to par with Western standards, Khivrenko said. On top of that, Ukraine reckons to make money providing food and fuel.
Kuzmuk added that Ukraine has a modern network of computer-aided training grounds on offer. Among them is the training ground in Shyroky Lan in Mykolaiv oblast for exercises involving sea and air tasks.
The general was confident that Ukraine’s training areas would prove attractive to Nato saying:’ The training grounds are ready for tender, and their unique quality is the availability of runways suitable for aircraft of all kinds, as well as of nearby areas useful for division-scale exercises.’
Another military training field that will participate in the tender is a field in Macedonia, much smaller than the one in Lviv oblast.
Ukraine’s close cooperation with NATO may turn out to be an important aspect in Ukrainian-Russian relations. ‘We have relations with Russia, which are very important to us, and Ukraine and Russia have friendly relations. Thus we form a closed triangle,’ said NATO Secretary General Javier Solana during his visit to Ukraine in July. However, Russia does not seem to be happy about its part in the triangle.
‘Our attitude to this [Ukraine renting out a trainig field to NATO] is negative. Evrybody knows our position. It’s impermissible,’ said Sergey Sokolov, the first secretary at Russian Embassy in Ukraine.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union Russia has treated NATO as a threat to its security and has vehemently opposed NATO’s eastward expansion. Russia’s former minister of foreign affairs Yevgeny Primakov, who is now the prime minister, has many times stressed that NATO’s expansion would ruin the established balance of power.
The Ukraine-NATO joint exercises in Yavoriv this month are expected to be the decisive factor in NATO’s decision on whether or not to accept Ukraine’s offer.
