Military Strategy of Ukraine

by Dzerkalo Tyzhnia

SWJ Blog Post | January 17, 2016 

Military Strategy of Ukraine by Yurii Butusov in his article for Dzerkalo Tyzhnia. Translation source is Censor.net.

The Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces have grown and changed significantly in 2015, so in order to evaluate the vectors of their development we should look at priorities and major achievements year-end. So, what has changed to better and to worse, where does it stagnate; where do words and actions differ? This is especially important after the state budget for 2016 was approved, with its record 5 percent of the GDP allocated for the defense sector. The society needs to see and understand how the budget funds are spent. We will try to analyze what has been done at the major directions of the Defense Ministry’s development.

On Oct. 15, 2015 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, while presenting newly-appointed Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, entrusted the military with clear tasks:

"Given the military and political situation I set the task for the Minister of Defense - to provide for preparation of major documents on defense planning. They include development of the National defense strategy; the Defense Ministry and the General Staff should start doing that right now. The military doctrine needs to be amended immediately (current situation provides many reasons for that), and the new version of the development program of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as that of the State development program for weapons and military equipment, should be prepared."

On May 26, 2015 the president's decree finalized Ukraine's National Security Strategy.

It defines the major goals:

1. Fight for restoration of territorial integrity within acting borders of Ukraine;

2. Independence from the Russian Federation in the weapons sector;

3. Reforms of all security and defense bodies;

4. Integration with the EU and NATO.

The new Military doctrine of Ukraine has been developed based on the Strategy; it was finalized by the president's decree of Sept. 2, 2015…

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