KIEV, September 27 (AVN) -- The Ukrainian government has repaid all its debts to servicemen for the year 1997, Army General Alexander Kuzmuk, Urkaine's defence minister, said on Monday.
It is still unclear when debts for 1998 and 1999 will be repaid, he said. By early 1999, the government had underpaid 300 million hrivnyas (about 67 million U.S. dollars) in monetary allowance to servicemen. It is still three to four months behind the schedule in payment of salaries.
In order to improve situation with the army's debts, Kuzmuk issued a directive permitting officers and their family members to go to sanatoriums for free. The cost of sanatorium treatment will be then deducted from the state's debt to servicemen.