Ukrainian Military - Organisation

Organisation

The Ukrainian armed forces are largely made up of conscripts. The total personnel (including 41,000 civilian workers) numbers at the end of 2010 will be 200,000. The branch structure is as follows:

• Ukrainian Ground Forces: 73,300 personnel
• Ukrainian Air Force: 46,000 personnel
• Ukrainian Navy: 15,000 personnel

"With the adoption on December 26, 1996, of a new 'State Programme for the Building and Development of the Armed Forces of Ukraine', a new type of military district was established in northeast Ukraine, centered in the city of Chernihiv and designated as the Northern Operational/Territorial Command, later renamed the Northern Operational Command.' ..The State Programme also provided that the two military districts, Carpathian and Odessa, be renamed the Western and Southern Operational Commands respectively.'

Ukraine maintains a number of Guards units, tracing their traditions from Soviet Armed Forces service. A list can be seen at List of guards units of Ukraine. Women make almost 13% of the armed forces (18,000 persons). There are few female high officers, 2,9% (1.202 women). Contractual military service counts for almost 44% of women. However, this is closely linked to the low salary of such positions: men refuse to serve in these conditions when women accept them.

A number of universities have specialised military institutes, such as the Faculty of Military Legal Studies at Kharkiv's National Yaroslav Mudryi Law Academy of Ukraine, however, the primary Ukrainian military academies are the following:

• Petro Sahaidachny Ground Forces Academy, Lviv
• Nakhimov Naval Academy, Sevastopol
• Ivan Kozhedub Air Force University, Kharkiv (ru:Харьковский университет Воздушных Сил имени Ивана Кожедуба)

In addition the National Defense University of Ukraine (uk:Національний університет оборони України) is in Kiev.

The Chief Military Clinic Hospital is located in Kiev.