Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has said that Ukraine's army has been made a hostage to political intrigues.
The president said this on Monday at a meeting of the National
Security and Defense Council, noting that he is very anxious about the
situation in Ukraine’s armed forces.
“We do not have a defense minister, chief of the Ukrainian Armed
Forces General Staff, and 25 military settlements have been left
without electricity. None of the navy’s ships has been repaired this
year so far,” the head of state said.
The government is not financing the program on the modernization of
Ukrainian tanks, and the development of a tactical missile complex has
reached the dead end, the president said.
Yushchenko said that he had brought up this issue at the NSDC meeting
so that the council members could decide how to help the Ukrainian army
to recover.
He once again criticized the government for its failure to finance
the programs on developing Ukraine’s armed forces. All the promises
about the development of the Ukrainian army, its transfer to a
contractual basis, which Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko made
in 2007, have not been fulfilled, the president said.
