The head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaman, announced that the leadership had two ways to reform the army. At the same time, these two paths look completely opposites of each other. Path number one is the return of the 2-year conscription service. This way Ukrainian military officials shoals. Path number two - the transfer of the Ukrainian army on a contractual basis. On this path, the current Ukrainian president actively insisted in his time, which, by the way, added to his vote in the last presidential elections in Ukraine. True, Yanukovych argued that the contract army would appear in the country as early as 2011, but the year was 2013, and the conscripts in the Ukrainian Armed Forces have not disappeared anywhere. But both Ukrainians and Russians have already managed to get used to the fact that the election promises of the authorities do not always fit in with the subsequent objective reality.
To transfer the army to a contract basis with the simultaneous modernization of military-technical potentials, Ukraine needs to allocate 125 billion hryvnias (about 420 billion rubles). This figure is not invented by journalists. She was personally voiced by the Minister of Defense Mr. Lebedev. At the same time, the minister said that so far with the Ministry of Finance there are agreements on the allocation of 98 billion hryvnia, but he (Lebedev) expressed the hope that President Yanukovych should say the last word on this matter. Supposedly, the President of Ukraine is capable of influencing the Ministry of Finance in order for the state financiers to allocate the necessary amount for rearmament and, let's say, professionalization of the country's army.
But either Viktor Yanukovych again took the Mkhatovskaya pause, or by his protracted silence he decided to hint Pavel Lebedev that he was “worthless,” but so far there is no information that the money requested by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine will be allocated in full. Based on this, Pavel Lebedev decided himself to take the bull by the horns, and made a resonant proposal. He said that the Ministry of Defense is ready to use internal reserves and, by taking on additional obligations, can directly participate in the financing of military reform. In this regard, the head of the military department of Ukraine was awarded interrogative views from the Ukrainian public: they say, where did the Ministry of Defense get such money? And will not the reform of the Ukrainian army order life long, if the main military department of the country itself undertakes additional obligations, like those drivers Larionov and Kutko from the famous monologue written by Mikhail Zhvanetsky ...
Where does the money come from? Lebedev explained himself. He announced that the modernization of the army funds can be found where today the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is present non-core real estate. Many shuddered at such words ... After all, in Ukraine, the public also has an idea of how non-core facilities can be realized. Variants of the implementation of "non-core real estate" are known for the activities of representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense at the time when the helm of this department was in Anatoly Serdyukov’s sweaty hands: And now, the Ukrainian deja vu.

Lebedev calls more than two hundred military camps in almost all regions of Ukraine separate military-industrial enterprises as “unnecessary” property. In addition, Pavel Lebedev intends to put up for auction and samples of military equipment.
At the same time, the Ukrainian minister said that after the implementation of the designated “non-core” facilities, the country's budget will receive a quote: “billions of hryvnias” that can be spent on re-equipping the army and providing professional military personnel with housing and a decent money allowance. In order to make everything as transparent as possible, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine is going to conduct a sale through auctions.
Well, what can I say ... God forbid that the Ukrainian versions of auctions for the sale of non-core defense real estate and equipment do not become an exact copy of the auctions arranged by the Russian military at one time. After all, we all know very well how such auctions can be conducted throughout the post-Soviet space. One of the options is to offer such initial conditions for the participation of companies in the auction, which completely discourage the desire to participate in them from representatives of, let's say, transparent business. As a result, the winner of the auction is a company affiliated with the interested bureaucratic environment, the company that was able to enlist the support thanks to such a "compelling argument" as a rollback ... Although, perhaps, we are here in vain about this reasoning. Maybe for Ukrainian officials and Ukrainian business this situation is not typical ...
However, they argue about this in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. In particular, some deputies believe that the implementation of the so-called non-core real estate of the Ministry of Defense will not be able to do without the application of corruption schemes. In this case, the same lawmakers argue that about any auctions can not be a speech until then, until a full inventory of army property. The most interesting thing is that doubts about the proposal of the Minister of Defense were expressed by both deputies from the Ukrainian opposition and representatives of the party in power along with those parliamentarians who often define themselves as representatives of the majority camp (for example, the Communists). Members of the Communist Party of Ukraine declare that the Defense Ministry’s property can get on the table for sharing by the Ukrainian oligarchs, and the army itself will receive a fig from such a big sale, and a cookie without butter ...
I would like to hope that in the Ukrainian military in the process of reforming the army, all the pitfalls will be taken into account and a peculiar Russian experience will be taken into account. Although looking at the Russian experience some Ukrainian political forces consider below their dignity ...