The days when Ukraine could ignore its own defense, or regional and global security issues, are long gone.
The war that Russia unleashed in the Donbas back in the spring of 2014 has proved to be a shocking awakening for the country, where the military had been severely neglected and underfunded for more than two decades.
Against the odds, Ukraine fought Russian-led forces in the Donbas to a standstill, and secured its immediate future as an independent nation, according to Colonel Albert Mytroshkyn, the head of Intelligence Planning Department at the Ukraine’s Armed Forces Chief Directorate of Intelligence.
On Dec. 5, Mytroshkyn, a Donbas war veteran, will speak about the progress made in bolstering the country’s military on the Transforming Security & Defense Panel at the Kyiv Post’s Tiger Conference.
The panel will be moderated by Ariel Cohen, a senior research fellow at the Atlantic Council and director of the Center for Energy, Natural Resources and Geopolitics in Washington. D.C.
The other speakers on the panel are: General Giorgi Kalandadze, ex-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Georgia; Oksana Syroyid, deputy speaker of the Verkhovna Rada; Mark Galeotti, senior research at the Institute of International Relations in Prague, Czech Republic; and Denys Gurak, Ukroboronprom deputy director general for foreign economic activity.
“In the past three years there have been more improvements than over the previous two pre-war decades,” Mytroshkyn told the Kyiv Post. “For instance, the army’s reconnaissance units have been greatly enhanced in combat through the use of modern drones, as well as advanced communications.”
“It was not even possible to imagine any of these things at the dawn of the war in 2014. Many important milestones have been passed, but there is still a very long way to go, and it, of course, depends heavily on financing.”
Today, Ukraine spends more on its defense than ever before, with 2017 figures reaching a record-high amount of Hr 129 billion ($4.87 billion), or nearly 6 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). Next year, even higher outlays are expected, as the National Defense and Security Council has vowed to boost the defense budget by more 26 percent to Hr 163.2 billion ($6.26 billion).
Meanwhile, most NATO member states do not meet the benchmark spending level 2 percent of GDP on defense to which alliance members have committed.
Ukraine’s army has grown in size significantly, with the total fighting force now close to 250,000 — the limit imposed by the country’s current legislation. Most soldiers are now serving under contract, and they are being incentivized with increasing pays and benefits. Today, the average private soldier serving at on the front line in the Donbas earns around Hr 17,000 ($640) per month — which is about five times more than the country’s minimum wage.
And step by step, the branches of the armed services, such as recently reformed Air Assault Forces, are shedding outdated Soviet practices in favor of more advanced Western-style training, uniforms, command structures and combat techniques. By 2020, the Armed Forces are expected to complete the switch to NATO standards and achieve total compatibility with the militaries of the alliance.
“I would say that in many aspects we could already finish adopting (NATO standards) as early as by 2018–2019,” Mytroshkyn said. “Moreover, a whole generation of young commanders of various ranks have emerged from the Donbas battlefields. They now have a huge amount of experience of modern warfare, and many of them have been abroad to study Western practices of command, and then used them in combat.”
“Today they are gradually squeezing Soviet habits out of the army, and even though the old system is still resisting, the supreme command definitely supports them, and it is the young veteran officers who are now taking the lead.”
Overall, Ukraine is a growing military power that is steadily improving its potential, Mytroshkyn said. However, Russia still presents numerous problems and threats to the nation’s domestic security.
Among these are the series of assassinations of high-ranking officers and activists, such as the recent murder of Ukrainian war volunteer Amina Okueva on Oct. 31, as well as several fires and explosions at army munition depots. The country’s security services have come under criticism for failing to prevent these and other alleged acts of sabotage.
“I can agree with the opinion that the security services can’t fully handle Russian subversive activities,” Mytroshkyn said. “But then again, there are very few high-class specialists in this field in our country, and they lack the appropriate experience. We’re still only just managing to get a grip on the problem.”
“This is a real problem as well, and as long as Russia continues its aggression, security for Ukraine will be a challenging issue.”
