LVIV - The level of corruption in the Ukrainian Armed Forces has fallen significantly, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said while speaking at the opening ceremony of the Ukraine-U.S. military exercise Fearless Guardian 2015 at Yavoriv range in Lviv Oblast.
“If [we] consider the level of cooperation we had six months ago with the one we have now, [I] must admit [there has been] significant progress. We have launched the Train and Equip Program but half-year ago we weren’t ready for it. Shall [I] speak honestly about the reasons? Firstly, it was corruption in our army and no one among our partners wanted to cooperate, just because of corruption. In these six months we have proved that we have changed the military, with the help of volunteers and due to decisive actions by new officials at the Ministry of Defense and the Ukrainian General Staff,” Poroshenko said.
According to Poroshenko, Ukraine’s foreign partners are certain that corruption in the Ukrainian military has been greatly reduced and they are now ready to cooperate with the military.
He said that Russian agents infiltrating the military and leaking information was the second reason why Ukraine’s foreign partners were unwilling to cooperate with the Ukrainian military.
“When a great part of the Ukrainian military are agents of the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB) and they [foreign partners] knew that and honestly spoke about it with the political leaders of the country, I become responsible for changes to the military, to clear it of FSB [agents]. After certain steps, Ukraine and the Ukrainian military are trusted and due to that there is a possibility to transfer defensive arms and training technologies which was impossible before,” he said.
“I assure you that cooperation will be greatly expanded in the shortest time possible,” Poroshenko added.
