Huge reform needs in the Ukrainian defence sector

A new report by Adriana Lins de Albuquerque and Jakob Hedenskog, both from FOI, analyses the Ukrainian defence sector.

The aim is to identify the reform needs in order to contribute to long-term, needs-based, and locally owned security sector reform (SSR) and capacity building objectives. Five broad issues recognized as being central to the development of a defence sector that upholds SSR ideals, are scrutinized in the report. These are democratic control of the Armed Forces, accountability, human rights, societal representativeness, and capacity and management.

Some of the main problems raised in the report are the wide-spread corruption within the defence sector, the imperfect incorporation of the volunteer battalions in the state structures and the military weakness of the Armed Forces, also exposed in logistics and military medicine.