KYIV, July 16 — Against this backdrop of grinding war, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine stands as the institutional backbone of the nation’s survival, a body whose origins reach back to the tumult of the early 20th century and whose current mission is tested daily by the Russian invasion. The ministry, which oversees the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was formally established on September 24, 1991, just one month after Ukraine’s declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.
Its first and most urgent task was the reorganization of all Soviet military forces stationed on Ukrainian territory. In the corridors of power in Kyiv, the early 1990s were defined by a different kind of military transformation: in 1994, Ukraine voluntarily relinquished all nuclear weapons.
The ministry subsequently spent significant funds eliminating those weapons, as well as military bases and equipment, to meet the requirements of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.
A Ministry Forged in War
The ministry’s mission, as ratified by the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, is rooted in principles of non-intervention, respect for national borders and sovereignty, and the rejection of force as an instrument of influence. Its official duties include preventing hostility, structuring the military, and repelling all types of aggression. The military doctrine does not specify threats by name but refers to states whose policies present a military threat or interfere in Ukraine’s internal affairs.
The minister of defence heads the ministry, while the president of Ukraine serves as Supreme Commander-in-Chief. The ministry’s responsibilities are vast: supporting the Armed Forces’ day-to-day activities, mission and mobilization readiness, combatant value, training, manning, weapons and military equipment supplies, material and funding resources, and control over resource use.
It also oversees developing interoperability with civilian agencies, international military and military-technical cooperation, compliance with law, and civilian control over the Armed Forces. In 2022, it was planned to provide 5 percent of Ukraine’s GDP for the ministry’s needs. By July 2022, amidst the full-scale Russian invasion, the Ministry of Defence stated that it was spending a year’s budget every single month of the war.
Historical Roots
The wider picture of Ukraine’s military governance stretches back more than a century. The first military executive office was created on June 28, 1917, as part of the General Secretariat of Ukraine, 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.
Petliura resigned in late December 1917 in protest of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Bolsheviks then established their own executive branch under Vasyl Shakhrai.
On January 25, 1918, general secretariats were reorganized into people’s ministries as Ukraine proclaimed independence. The People’s Ministry of Military Affairs existed under Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky until the exile of the Ukrainian National Government at the end of 1920. A different iteration emerged on January 24, 1919, with the establishment of the People’s Commissariat of Military Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR.
That commissariat was dissolved in the summer of 1919 due to a military union with the Russian SFSR signed in April 1919. Later, in 1944, the People’s Commissariat of Defence of the Ukrainian SSR existed once again.
Sources
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