Kuchma names new minister of defense (11/18/01)

Kuchma names new minister of defense

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma on November 12 handed the reins of control over Ukraine's military to one of its own once again when he appointed Gen. Volodymyr Shkidchenko to be the country's fourth minister of defense.

Gen. Shkidchenko replaced Gen. Oleksander Kuzmuk, who resigned in the wake of the accidental downing of a commercial TU-154 airliner over the Black Sea by Ukrainian Air Defense forces during a live fire military exercise on October 4. All 78 passengers aboard the Tel-Aviv-to-Novosibirsk flight died when a Ukrainian test missile went some 250 kilometers off target and exploded several meters behind the airliner, sending it into the sea.

Gen. Shkidchenko, who prior to his promotion had chaired the Armed Forces General Staff, was appointed temporary minister of defense after Gen. Kuzmuk's resignation on October 24.

The move came after President Kuchma had given every indication he would heed calls for civilian control over the armed forces. The president said on November 14 that the appointment of a civilian at this juncture in Ukrainian history is premature.

"I am not against the principle of civilian control of the Armed Forces. I believe it is necessary," said President Kuchma, who added that the country could not risk enduring once again the corruption and loss of discipline that had occurred when Valerii Shmarov, the country's first civilian minister of defense, held the post in 1994.

The president said he believes more reforms must take place and additional laws must be passed before the military would be ready for a second "experiment" of that sort.

He added that he wants to avoid politicizing the office. "I do not want the Defense Ministry to become the party headquarters of any structure," explained Mr. Kuchma.

The president indicated that he would appoint a civilian to be state secretary, a position recently created within each of the ministries of government and responsible for their individual day-to-day operations.

Leonid Poliakov, an expert on military affairs with the Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Studies, said the appointment of Gen. Shkidchenko would be a period of transformation for the armed forces. He said he expected the new minister of defense would allow for more operational and organizational transparency in the shuttered world of Ukraine's military.

Mr. Poliakov also said that Gen. Shkidchenko had already developed contacts in the Verkhovna Rada, which is crucial to obtain proper funding from the national budget for the modernization of the Armed Forces.

Gen. Shkidchenko was born on January 1, 1948, in Chita, Russia. He has degrees from the Moscow Physical and Engineering Institute, the Odesa High Artillery Command College, the Frunze Military Academy and the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Soviet Union.

In 1993 he was appointed first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. From 1993 to 1998 he served as the commander of the Odesa military district and in 1998 was appointed the commander of the South Strategic Command.

Gen. Shkidchenko's father was a lieutenant general in the Soviet Army and served in Afghanistan where he died. Russia's President Vladimir Putin awarded the Hero of Russia medal to the late Gen. Shkidchenko last year, presenting it to his son, now the new Ukrainian minister of defense.

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