(As an aside, I shook hands with Walesa, once.)
Posted on 03/25/2014 2:29:02 PM PDT by tcrlaf
Edited on 03/25/2014 3:25:24 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday installed Colonel General Myhaylo Koval as the country's new acting defense minister after approving the resignation of his predecessor, Ihor Tenyukh.
Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov had nominated Koval, a 58-year-old military man who has commanded a parachute battalion and served as the deputy head of the State Border Service, after the Ukrainian Rada accepted the resignation of Tenyukh in a second vote on the matter, Interfax reported.
In the first round of voting, the parliament failed to clear the 226 votes needed, with only 197 of 310 deputies supporting the departure, but the measure got 228 votes in the second round.
Offering his resignation because of criticism against him, Tenyukh rejected the idea that he had not given prompt orders concerning Crimea, which is being vacated by Ukrainian troops following Russia's annexation of the peninsula last week. Tenyukh said that on March 3 he gave orders authorizing soldiers to use their weapons according to regulations.
Tenyukh was also criticized for not ordering troops to leave Crimea earlier.
Tenyukh said Tuesday that only 4,300 of the 18,800 servicemen based in Crimea planned to stay in the Ukrainian armed forces, Reuters reported.
Many Ukrainian forces in Crimea have either joined the Russian army or left their bases after they were taken over by Russian forces, who have been in the region since early March. The run up to a referendum on Crimea's secession from Ukraine was pervaded by standoffs between Russian and Ukrainian forces, though no blood was spilled by either side.
Last week, after the referendum, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and Crimean police reported that a Ukrainian soldier and Crimean "self-defense fighter" had been killed at a skirmish in Simferopol.
Tenyukh, a member of the nationalist Svoboda party and one-time commander of the Ukrainian Navy, took the post of defense minister shortly after Kremlin-ally and former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev amid violent anti-government protests.
Svoboda Party, ex-Ukrainian Navy Commander
A colonel, accepted in a one vote squeaker on the second vote after being rejected the first time, labeled as ‘acting’. I don’t envy this guy one bit.
I think their army amounts to about 90,000. And that’s about it. I wonder if they have weapons....with bullets?
“I wonder if they have weapons....with bullets?”
Plenty of bullets in Ukraine, but, beyond the Nazi Crazies, who are screaming for Russian blood, not much resolve to actually use them, it seems.
This is why who leads revolutions matter.
Poland had Walesa, I don’t see any “Walesas” among this group of Ukrainians.
(As an aside, I shook hands with Walesa, once.)
What I read sounded like third tier, obsolete or at best obsolescent armor and not very much of that. Some obsolescent aircraft. This is outdated but an effort to puff their strength. http://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.asp?country_id=Ukraine Massive defections withing the ranks. Not a good time to be a soldat over there. They were banking on ample western cannonfodder. We’ll see.
I wonder how many wish they could return to a status quo ante?
I wonder how many will wish that by the end of the year?
who has "Putin, Kick Me Here" tattooed on his butt.
"YOU NOT SAY UKRAINE WEAK!"
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