|
I suppose there are more than a few Ukrainians wishing Ukraine had kept its part of the Soviet nuclear deterrent.
That said, if it hits the fan, I am not sure how reliable the Ukrainian Armed Forces are, leaving aside the capabilities gap between them and the Red Army -- sorry, Russian Army.
Since coming into office, Yanukovych had been moving non-ethnic Ukrainians into key positions in the security forces, but I don't know how effective that was down the ranks. When I worked with the Ukrainians in 1996, their officer corps still had a large percentage of Soviet holdovers from other parts of the USSR. However, they had been making progress reintegrating Ukrainians from other former Soviet military districts and increasing the percentage of Ukrainian-born officers (not necessarily ethnic Ukrainians all, but at least from Ukraine).
Yanukovych's defense minister and army and air force commanders were Russians, and his navy commander, also promoted to chief of the general staff of the armed forces a week ago, was a Belarussian who had been a Soviet Navy officer in the Crimea when the USSR collapsed. I know the defense minister and Adm. Ilyin have been removed, but I don't know about the others.
But how much this goes down the ranks, and whether they have to worry if some troops will refuse to fight if called upon, or even turn on their comrades, seems like a big unknown to me.
|