LVOV, February 2 (Itar-Tass) -- The Ukrainian military doctrine will be reviewed after the presidential election, Ukrainian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Yulia Timoshenko said on Tuesday.
“The military doctrine needs to be modernized and balanced. If that is done, the Ukrainian armed forces will be strong,” the premier said.
She said she would start her possible presidency with the switch to the professional armed forces. “We will have the professional armed forces and will stop to draft conscripts when the presidential election is over,” Timoshenko said.
The bill on the military service by contract was presented to the parliament immediately after the early parliamentary election of 2007, she said. “However, the political struggle and the unwillingness of my opponents to allow me fulfill this promise and raise my authority were the impediment,” Timoshenko said. “The bill will be unblocked after the presidential election. We have a strategy of the conversion of the armed forces, we have financial estimates and techniques,” she said.
Meanwhile, President Viktor Yushchenko said in Drogobych, Lvov region, before the first round of the presidential election that 2,500 servicemen by contract quit last year. “The monthly salary of a contract servicemen amounts to 870 hryvni ($100). What kind of young people will agree to that? Is not that the capitulation of the national defense policy?” he wondered.
Yushchenko said that Ukraine had the defense minister’s vacancy for 18 months and the modernization of the armed forces had not begun.
Source:itar-tass.com/
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