Ukraine is desperately trying to bolster its military capability and integrate into global security structures after Russia invaded and annexed Crimea and then instigated a separatist war in the Donbas that has claimed more than 4,000 lives.
Ukraine’s military weakness was decades in the making, partly a byproduct of the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and partly because many in Ukraine never expected to fight a hot war with Russia — or any other country, for that matter.
“The New Security Paradigm,” which seeks to address solutions to the problem, is the opening panel discussion of the Kyiv Post’s 2014 Tiger Conference to be held at the Hilton Hotel in Kyiv on Nov. 19.
One of the speakers is Joseph LeGasse, a former intelligence adviser to the White House and International Security Assistance Force. He will join Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, the former commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe, on the panel along with Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and former Security Service of Ukraine chief Ihor Smeshko.
LeGasse said that Ukraine needs to define a strategy and put in place a transparent system for military procurement and logistics.
“Because of many years of theft by the last president, the system has become highly corrupt,” LeGasse said, referring to President Viktor Yanukovych, ousted on Feb. 22 by the EuroMaidan Revolution. He said that President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. “have attempted to put in few smart people, but until what Ukraine needs is defined, its security system and how it needs to take care of the units in the east, it will be very difficult to do anything smart.”
One only needs to look at Ukraine’s parade of defense ministers – four so far this year – to know that problems exist. Since Yanukovych left power, the top defense officials have been Ihor Tenyukh (February – March), Mykhailo Koval (March – July), Valeriy Heletey (July – October) and currently, since October, Stepan Poltorak.
On Nov. 4, after rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts defied Ukraine by electing prime ministers for their mock republics, Poroshenko worked out a new security plan with the National Defense and Security Council amid continued warfare and new reports of a Russian military buildup.
Poroshenko also set defense spending at 3 percent of Ukraine’s gross domestic product of approximately $180 billion. By comparison, NATO member states set two percent of GDP as the goal for defense spending, but few countries meet that mark.
Ukraine’s military force has been reduced significantly since 1991, from 455,000 to 160,000 active personnel.
Hertling, another Tiger Conference speaker, said Ukraine needs to bolster its ranks of professional soldiers.
“Based on the amount of money that you have to spend to maintain an army, it gives you a more capable force if it is a professional force who basically make their career the military,” Hertling said. “Unfortunately, the transition from draft force to professional force is a very difficult change. Now with the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian army has been forced to go to war fully, so it relied on what it used to, as opposed to continuing the transformation.”
The Russian invasion has also exposed the vulnerabilities of Ukraine’s non-aligned status, prompting more Ukrainians — some 44 percent, according to September poll of Democratic Initiatives Foundation — to support NATO membership. Other polls show a majority of Ukrainians want the nation to join NATO.
Rasa Jukneviciene, head of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly delegation to Ukraine and former defense minister of Lithuania, hopes Ukraine can get into NATO quickly.
“It took 14 years until we became members of NATO and the European Union,” Jukneviciene said. “If you have this goal, I’m sure you will achieve it, despite a lot of skeptical messages from NATO and EU countries.”
US military experts disagree on the NATO question. Hertling warned this move can cause more security problems with Russia. LeGasse said it’s not the best time to apply.
“NATO and EU are having their own problems. The countries that have been added over the last 10-15 years are all countries that needed help. I don’t think the time is right to ask for an invitation,” LeGasse said. “Right now Ukraine is only asking for help; they are not asking for how they can be part of a group like NATO or another organization where they can make a contribution.”
See also Vox Populi: Does the world need a new security structure to keep the peace?
Kyiv Post staff writer Anastasia Forina can be reached at [email protected]
