KYIV. April 21 (Interfax-AVN) - The Ukrainian Armed Forces will lay off about 19,000 officers and warrant officers in 2003 in the framework of the military reform, the Defense Ministry press service said on Monday.
"This was announced at an expanded session of the Defense Ministry board late last week," the press service told Interfax- Military News Agency.
The board addressed measures to perfect the staff policy under the circumstances of the army reform and progress in implementing the social policy. The session chaired by Defense Minister Volodymyr Shkidchenko was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Tabanchik, chairman of the national security and defense committee in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) Georgy Kryuchkov, and other officials.
Participants in the session stressed that new officers of the Ukrainian army must be oriented at North Atlantic integration. According to Shkidchenko, "establishment of the new officer corps in the framework of the Ukrainian Armed Forces restructuring and development must be viewed in the context of planned reduction of the army's numerical strength and Euro- Atlantic integration."
The Defense Ministry aims at bringing the ratio of senior and junior officers in the Ukrainian army to 40 to 60 percent by the end of 2010. However serious problems with keeping both junior and senior officers in service emerge already at the moment primarily due to financial reasons.
In particular, servicemen's allowances grew by an average of 60 percent on January 1, 2003, and the soldiers' average monthly income nearly reached UAH800 (USD165). At the same time, per capita income of 60 percent of servicemen's families amounts to UAH365 (USD68.4) or less a month. An average monthly allowance of a professional private does not exceed UAH400 (USD75), which is below Ukraine's average monthly wages amounting to UAH443 (USD83). The board stressed that such low allowances jeopardize implementation of the state program of transition to professional service.