Updated 5:22 p.m. Moscow Time
KIEV, October 7 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine has launched a criminal probe against a number of former top military commanders over their failure to ensure combat readiness of the country's armed forces since 1996, Ukraine's chief military prosecutor said Tuesday.
"The military prosecutor's office has opened a criminal investigation over neglect of official duty against former top officials of the Defense Ministry and the General Staff, who signed documents... that led to the situation where out of six brigades on paper [in spring 2014] we managed to put together only a unit of 400 soldiers [rather than several thousand]," Anatoly Matios, Ukraine's chief military prosecutor, said.
Among the officials under investigation are former defense ministers, including Yuriy Yekhanurov, Mykhailo Yezhel and Pavlo Lebedyev, as well as several former chiefs of the General Staff, Matios said.
Ukraine's armed forces are currently in poor condition. Thus, in March Ihor Tenyukh, who was the Defense Minister at that time, reported that only 6,000 people out of 41,000 serving in the armed forces "are prepared to perform combat tasks." Only a small share of Ukrainian tanks, military planes, attack helicopters and navy warships are battle-ready, while their crews lack knowledge and training.
