Ministerial insignia
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Ministry of Defence building in Kiev |
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Agency overview | |
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Formed | 3 September 1991 |
Preceding agency |
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Jurisdiction | Ukraine |
Headquarters | 6, Povitroflotskyi sq., Kiev |
Agency executives |
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Parent agency | Cabinet of Ministers |
Child agencies | |
Website | Official Website |
The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Міністерство оборони України) was established on 24 September 1991, one month after Ukraine's declaration of independence resolution. The ministry was in charge of all Soviet military forces reorganization on the territory of Ukrainian jurisdiction.
President of Ukraine (currently Petro Poroshenko) is Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In 1994 Ukraine has voluntarily given up all nuclear weapons. The Ministry spent significant funds eliminating former nuclear powers, military bases and man-power equipment to meet Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe requirements.
Once ratified by the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), the major objectives of the ministry are preventing hostility, structuring the military, and repelling all types of aggression (both in country and internationally). Ukrainian security policies are based on non-intervention, respect for the national borders and sovereignty of other states, rejecting any use of force as an instrument of influence. Because of political sensitivity, the military doctrine, similar to Ukraine's security policy, does not point out a specific threats; it rather refers to a "states, whose consistent policy presents a military threat, or leads to interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine, or encroaches Ukraine's territorial integrity and national interests."
Hence, the Ministry of Defence is responsible for:
The first military executive office was created on June 28, 1917 as part of the General Secretariat of Ukraine and was headed by Symon Petliura. The Russian Provisional Government refused to recognize it, but after the October Revolution the Secretariat of Military Affairs was re-established on November 12, 1917. At the end of December 1917 Symon Petliura resigned in protest to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. At the same time, Bolsheviks established own executive branch as part of the People's Secretariat headed by Vasyl Shakhrai. On January 6, 1918 Volodymyr Vynnychenko appointed Mykola Porsh to the vacant position. On January 25, 1918 the general secretariats were reorganized into people's ministries as Ukraine proclaimed its independence. [People's] Ministry of Military Affairs existed also during the regime of Hetman of Ukraine Pavlo Skoropadsky and until the exile of the Ukrainian National Government at the end of 1920.