Will there be a contract army in Ukraine?
In December, 2012, the Ukrainian president, V. Yanukovych, congratulating the servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on their professional holiday, announced that the conscription would be stopped and the transition to a contract basis was fully implemented. At the same time, the head of state was more cautious this time and did not specify exactly when all this would happen. Earlier, we recall, he spoke more specifically on this survey, although this did not affect his practical decision. Even in his election program, Yanukovych said that the transition of the armed forces to a contract basis would begin in 2011, but as it became apparent over time, these were nothing more than empty words.
At the same time, the date of refusal from the annual conscription to the Ukrainian army is well known: according to the statement by ex-defense minister Dmitry Salamatin, which was made the day after Yanukovych’s statement, the Ukrainian armed forces will switch to a contract from January 1 of 2014. Salamatin specified that certain economic and financial prerequisites are necessary for the implementation of such a transition, but expressed confidence that the task would still be completed. A little earlier, similar promises were made by the Party of Regions in the election program. However, it is not entirely clear what her representatives meant when they decorated their brochures with photos of a Russian soldier ...
But after all, the most important thing in all of this is that all these promises, which have been repeatedly given, are pure science fiction, and anyone who knows at least a little what is actually happening in the Ukrainian army cannot understand this. And the date of the refusal to call up and transfer the army to contract recruitment from January 1, 2014, is also another bluff, which appeared last spring.
They did not lag behind the head of state and representatives of the military department. True, they also indicated different terms. So, for example, in 2011, the Minister of War, Mikhail Yezhel, announced that the contract army in Ukraine would appear around the year of 2015, noting that this process was long and difficult. As an example, he cited the United States of America, which, with all its possibilities, spent on the transition to a professional army for about 10 years.
In the same year, Colonel-General G. Pedchenko (Chief of the Ukrainian General Staff in 2010-2012), stated that the Ukrainian army, taking into account the economic possibilities of the country, would switch to contract recruitment until 2025. However, he noted that the 2025 year did not arise by chance, and that this was due to a number of factors. First of all, the transfer of troops to a contractual basis was prevented by a very limited logistical and financial support, which made it impossible to create the necessary motivational conditions and motives for Ukrainian citizens, which would induce them to consciously enter military service under a contract.
Pedchenko also stated that, after analyzing the forecast indicators of state budget expenditures for defense up to 2023, and taking into account the minimal need for funding to perform tasks aimed at professionalizing the army, the military department concluded that the previously declared transition to the contract principle of recruitment Ukrainian armed forces until 2015 will not be able to perform ...
In the spring of 2012, the words of the Chief of the General Staff were recorded in official documents, which determined that by the 2015-2017 years the armed forces would be staffed with contract soldiers of only 80-85 percent and that the full transition would be possible only by 2025.
Such figures look more or less realistic, although even now it is necessary to start creating the necessary conditions for the number of contract servicemen in the Ukrainian army to increase, but nothing is being done ...
Then, in May of last year, the new chief of the General Staff, General V. Zaman, during one of his speeches in the Verkhovna Rada, all of a sudden, said that the Ukrainian army already in 2014 would give up the compulsory conscription forces on a contract basis. Initially, such a statement caused bewilderment and even shock, but when the Party of Regions introduced such a statement into its election program, everything immediately fell into place: it just became obvious that this was nothing more than another “divorce.” True, it is not entirely clear why such statements were made by the military, who should stay away from politics ...
At the same time, it is extremely interesting, how does the president intend to put his promises into practice? In October 2012 of the year, he, for the umpteenth time, stated that in the near future, the Ukrainian army would switch to a contract basis, noting that at present more than 50 percent of servicemen are serving in the armed forces under contract, and it is obvious that this is a big success. But if he really knew what was happening in the army, there would be no reason for his joy. Indeed, as statistics show, a similar percentage of contract soldiers is observed in the troops from at least 2008 onwards and does not increase, but on the contrary: in the first year of Yanukovich’s presidency, he even dropped by two percent, from 53 to 51 percent. The reform and permanent reduction of the armed forces, which has been held for more than a year, cannot save the situation: contract servicemen come to serve, but very soon they realize that they have made a big mistake and try to stop their service as quickly as possible using all available methods and techniques.
And there is nothing surprising in this. Judge for yourself: a soldier who serves in the Ukrainian army under a contract receives a little more than 1,5 thousands of hryvnias. For such money, you can only serve from complete hopelessness. And this amount will not increase, because the money comes from nowhere, and in order to understand this, it is enough to familiarize yourself with the new military budget, which is not enough even to keep the military personnel at least at the same level as last year.
Military experts also unanimously assert that the state is not yet ready for the transition of the army to a contract basis. At its core, the contract army must be highly professional in order to respond quickly to challenges. And this is extremely problematic, because a paid contract soldier with outdated weapons will not be able to increase combat readiness in any way, because it will perform modern military tasks with such weapons will not be able to. In addition, at the moment most of the contractors are immigrants from villages, without education, who were unclaimed in other areas of activity. Moreover, as experts note, with such salaries, it will not be a professional army, but a lumpen army, which will be completely useless. Therefore, it is obvious that neither the current government nor the future can seriously talk about the creation of a professional contract army in Ukraine.
Thus, there may be several explanations for such tales of the government regarding contract service: either the Ukrainian government cannot move away from the elections, and is so carried away with promises that it continues to distribute them further by inertia, or the New Year promises Ukrainians so much “good” that they will go to the army en masse, just not to die of hunger ...
Materials used:
http://flot2017.com/posts/new/otkuda_u_janukovicha_vozmetsja_kontraktnaja_armija
http://www.iarex.ru/news/32718.html
http://zn.ua/POLITICS/yanukovich_poobeschal_vypolnit_svoe_predvybornoe_obeschanie.html
http://ak-inzt.net/opinion/1366-18-10-2012
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