2008 Foreign Troops in UA

Nearly 3,000 foreign troops (2,940) will spend more than three months (142 days) on the territory of Ukraine throughout 2008. But Russia will still maintain the largest foreign troop presence in Ukraine, with its Black Sea Fleet based in Crimea.

Back in April, the Rada approved the multinational list of joint military exercises to be held in Ukraine throughout the year. An April issue of the Army’s Narodna Armiya magazine published details of the exercises, including a sample of the modern military hardware Ukrainians will see: 60 light wheeled vehicles, 15 ships, 12 airplanes, 12 helicopters and 2 submarines. This list is far from complete, as details of the armaments and hardware are only provided for 4 of 11 exercises (see second table).

Conspicuously missing from the report are the names, dates and numbers for bilateral air defense exercises with the Rossiyska Federation. So who knows how many Russian airplanes and pilots are in Ukraine at any one time? Not to mention the 25,000 service men of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and its 388 maritime vessels (including 14 submarines).

2008 months	Country	Exercise	# Foreign troops, days
ongoing	Russia	air defence	unspecified
May-July	Belgium	tactical	300, 20 days
May-Aug.	Moldova	South-2008	30, 7
unspec.	Belarus	tactical	50, 7
July	US	Sea Breeze	1,000, 25
July-Sept.	US	Combined Effort (aviation)	100, 14
Aug.-Sept.	US	Rapid Trident (command)	750, 15
Aug.-Sept.	Slovakia	Slavs for Peace	30, 7
Aug.-Oct.	Romania	tactical	30, 7
Sept.	multi	SOFEX	300, 15
Sept.-Nov.	Poland, Canada, Lithuania	Maple Arch	350, 25

Exercise name	Foreign troops (#)	Military Hardware
Sea Breeze	1,000	40 vehicles, 15 ships, 2 submarines, 4 airplanes, 4 helicopters
Combined Effort	100	10 vehicles, 4 airplanes, 2 helicopters
Rapid Trident	750	10 vehicles, 2 airplanes, 2 helicopters
Sofex	300	2 airplanes, 4 helicopters