KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine’s Defense Minister Volodymyr Shkidchenko pledged Thursday to streamline the military and turn it into a fully volunteer force, as the military marked its 10th anniversary as an independent force after the Soviet Union’s collapse. Shkidchenko said Ukraine’s military would gradually phase out the draft and increase the number of contract soldiers to eventually become fully professional. But he gave no time frame for the reform, saying it would depend on economic conditions.
In a statement published by the Uriadovy Kurier government newspaper, Shkidchenko said the government would also begin to appoint senior officers on a competitive basis and rotate them regularly. Shkidchenko also touched upon the painful issue of the accidental downing of a Russian airliner in October by a Ukrainian air defense missile, and promised to strengthen discipline.
Without searching for excuses, the leadership of the Defense Ministry and Ukraine’s General Staff will make every effort to prevent any negative occurrences that undermine people’s trust in their own army, Shkidchenko said. A Sibir Airlines Tu-154 crashed into the Black Sea, killing all 78 people on board, after being shot by a Ukrainian S-200 missile launched during military exercises on the Crimean peninsula. After the crash, Shkidchenko was appointed to replace Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk.
A year earlier, a Ukrainian missile fired from a training range accidentally hit an apartment building 90 kilometers (56 miles) from the capital, Kyiv. Three people were killed, five injured, and 91 were left homeless. During Soviet times, the Soviet Army had large nuclear and conventional arsenals on Ukrainian territory that the Ukrainian military inherited after the 1991 Soviet collapse. Ukraine has since dismantled all its nuclear weapons, but maintains large conventional arsenals.
Ukraine’s military has been battered by economic turmoil since the Soviet collapse, and its numbers have dwindled from 850,000 in 1991 to 400,000 now. There are plans to further downsize the military to 375,000 by 2005. The anniversary of the Ukrainian military was to be marked by ceremonial fireworks in Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Sevastopol, Lviv, Odessa and Chernihiv on Thursday evening.
