Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1542142
ARTICLE TEXT: MIKOŁAJ SUSUJEW DESIGN: POWER, ADOBE STOCK fms d Digal Trsfmn e m Fc Ukrae THE HISTORY OF THE CONTEMPORARY ARMED FORCES OF UKRAINE, AS WITH THE UKRAINIAN STATE ITSELF, CAN BE DIVIDED INTO TWO PERIODS — UP TO 2014 AND AFTER IT. PART 1. SOCIETY — THE SOURCE OF CHANGE IN THE MILITARY. The pre-2014 period in the history of the Ukrainian army can be conventionally called post-Soviet and is characterized on the one hand by the retention of Soviet patterns in the army's structure, and on the other by the gradual degradation of that structure caused by ubiquitous corruption and the state's meagre defense spending. After the outbreak of the war in Donbas in 2014 the situation reversed, and a period of rebuilding the Armed Forces of Ukraine and of broad reforms and modernization began. This process took place under the constant threat from the Russian Federation and in conditions of weak Ukrainian state institutions. That was especially true during the active phase of the Donbas war in 2014–2015. Ukraine did not have, at the outbreak of the war, a well-trained professional army ready for combat — at the beginning of 2014 its army was in a state of disrepair, and only a few elite units (special forces or airborne troops) were prepared for active operations. The expansion of the armed forces took place partly thanks to the influx of highly motivated volunteers and partly through successive waves of mobilization, which filled the Armed Forces with a huge number of civilians who until then had nothing to do with military service. At the same time, the lack of supplies and equipment suited to the contemporary battlefield motivated Ukrainian civil society to organize a large volunteer movement www.fragoutmag.com