Business in Ukraine

The events in Georgia are making the Ukrainian leadership rethink the country’s military doctrine, a daily has written. Quoting a high-ranking source at the Ukrainian Defence Ministry it said that more attention is going to be paid to protecting national interests in Crimea and Ukraine’s eastern regions bordering Russia. This will be accomplished by deploying new air defence units there. The following is the text of the article by Fedir Oryshchuk, entitled: Ukraine pointing missiles eastwards published in the Ukrainian daily Delo on 19 August; subheadings are as published:

The war in Georgia is changing the concept of Ukraine’s national security. The military are starting to strengthen defence in the country’s south-east.

The Georgian-Russian military conflict is forcing the leadership of Ukraine to step up the state’s defence capability. As early as this autumn the Defence Ministry will demand that parliament increase funding for the army. Previously the ministry had planned to allocate an additional 2bn hryvnyas, but now the requests of the military will grow significantly. It is planned to spend the extra funds on the formation of new subunits and weapons upgrading in existing army units in the south and east of the country. In the words of a high-ranking source in the Defence Ministry, the relevant conversation has already been held with the president [Viktor Yushchenko]. The head of state has given preliminary agreement to the proposal of the military.

Newspaper headlines like Crimea will be next did not passed unnoticed for the Ukrainian authorities. Assumptions that Ukraine might become the next object for Russian aggression are forcing our military to take unprecedented steps. Starting as early as this year, the state is planning to allocate additional funds for the defence of Crimea and the east of the country from a potential attack. As the high-ranking source in the Defence Ministry told Delo, the strengthening is due to affect air defence units first of all.

According to the deputy chief of General Staff of the Defence Ministry, Ihor Romanenko, a new air defence anti-aircraft missile regiment was already formed last year in the east of Ukraine. Its task is to provide a defence umbrella over Donetsk and Luhansk regions. We are not standing still, but are improving ourselves in accordance with the challenges that are appearing in the world, is how he commented on the need to create the new regiments on the left bank of the Dnieper.

Apart from that, starting from this year, the Defence Ministry will be focusing on the defence of the state’s southern regions, in particular Crimea. It may be a matter of a numerical increase in air defence forces, redeploying anti-aircraft missile complexes and fighter planes from other regions and upgrading existing missiles and anti-aircraft missile complexes (AMC).

Missiles already being tested

Apart from that, active funding of our own multi-functional missile complex is continuing at the present time. Work on its development has been carried out for several years, and especially intensively over the past three years. The main designer is the Dnipropetrovsk-based Pivdenmash missile plant. In the words of Lt-Gen Romanenko, the complex offers the unified use of air defence missiles for infantry and aviation troops, as well as for naval forces. The same basic missile will be used in the ground to air, ground to ground, shore to ship, ship to shore and ship to air schemes, the General Staff deputy chief says. Testing of individual elements of the multi-functional complex will start after 2010, he said. The new air defence system will be of entirely Ukrainian manufacture, with the exception of an insignificant number of parts.

In the framework of increased funding, in the words of the Defence Ministry source, it is intended to raise in parliament this autumn the question of allocating additional funds to conduct exercises of air defence subunits. This question, according to Delo’s information, has already been discussed with the president. Yushchenko assured the military that the funds will most probably be allocated.

At the present time firing training from AMCs is being conducted at the only test site in Ukraine, Chauda, near Feodosiya. At the same time, at exercises here in Ukraine, Ukrainians can use only AMCs like Buk, S-300 and Osa. Firing from the most powerful S-200 complex, which in 2001 accidentally shot down a Tu-154 Russian passenger plane over the Black Sea, has been banned since then. For this reason, our anti-aircraft forces have been forced to conduct exercises at test sites in Russia. In Romanenko’s words, depending on the location of the test site, Ukraine pays Russia from one to two million dollars a year for this service. Incidentally, it is not ruled out that following the statements by Russian Federation representatives about the participation of Ukrainian air defence specialists in combat actions on the side of Georgia, the question may arise of a ban on Ukraine carrying out such measures on Russian territory, in spite of the fact that Ukraine has officially denied the participation of its military specialists in the Caucasus war.

Replacement for nuclear weapons

In the words of a former adviser to the president on military questions, Maj-Gen Vadym Hrechaninov (retired), the Defence Ministry raised the question of strengthening the defence capability of Ukraine’s eastern and southern regions back in the early 1990s. After the collapse of the USSR, the army was concentrated primarily on the territory of the western regions of Ukraine. However, in the 1990s it was difficult to finance the redeployment of troops to the south and east. Apart from that, it was virtually impossible from the political point of view. For that reason, the reorganization was deferred. But today Russia is strengthening its grouping in the North Caucasus, and this means Krasnodar Territory, our neighbours, and we need to think about this (strengthening the defence of south-eastern Ukraine - Delo), the major-general says. In Hrechaninov’s words, after renouncing nuclear weapons, Ukraine was forced to look for new means of preventing war. In place of nuclear weapons, a strong air force and powerful ground-based missiles complexes may serve as such a means for Ukraine.

In any case, the military conflict in South Ossetia gave a chance to the Ukrainian army to draw the attention of the authorities to itself. It is not ruled out that thanks to the new argument - the Russo-Georgian war - the Defence Ministry will succeed in gaining appropriate funding for the army at a level of 2 per cent of GDP.

This year, the ministry’s budget amounted to about 10bn hryvnyas, which is only 1 per cent of the country’s GDP.

Tags: Politics //