Ukraine's Defense Minister Mykhailo Yezhel has said that Ukraine will not be able to transfer its army to contractual service in 2011, which is one of the items of Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych's "Ukraine for people" election platform.
"As a matter of fact, the situation has unfolded in such a way, that we really can not switch to contractual service within three months, as some politicians declared," he said on Inter TV channel on Friday evening.
Yezhel also noted, that "at present, we have to draft about 25,000 servicemen, whereas some 50,000 are contract soldiers."
The minister named the shortage of money and low prestige of military service among the basic barriers to the army’s transfer to contractual service
At the same time, he stressed that the transfer of the U.S. army to contractual service lasted for ten years.
