Experts concerned over Ukraine’s military budget

On the background of the full scale Russian military aggression against Georgia Ukrainian experts are concerned about the condition of the country’s defence budget.

“The military doctrine does not conform to reality,” President of the Atlantic Council of Ukraine Vadim Grechaninov has stated. The doctrine asserts that the need to resort to military force is less likely today, and this idea has influenced the amount of money allotted for defence purposes for the last 17 years.

The Ukraine Army’s budget was USD 9 million to start with but in 2008 had grown to USD 2 billion. However, to compare, The United Kingdom’s army of around 200,000 has a budget of more than USD 50 billion, while Spain lays aside USD 13 billion for its army of 150,000. France, with an army of 250,000, gives it a USD 35 billion budget, while Russia, which currently has a 1,200,000-strong army, has a USD 50 billion army budget.