Kiev - Ukraine will cut its armed forces by 40,000 to 370,000 over the next five years, the Defence Ministry said yesterday.
Mr Serhiy Nahoryansky, the ministry spokesman, said the cuts would be made under the former Soviet state's new military reform concept. The first 10,000 servicemen would go before the end of this year, he said.
"We have proposed this new concept of reforming our armed forces in the light of profound changes in the political and military situation in Europe and planned reforms in NATO," Mr Nahoryansky said.
Ukraine, eager to come out of the shadow of Russia, has built cordial relations with NATO. Unlike Moscow, Kiev has never shown any resentment of NATO's eastward expansion and expressed only muted criticism of its air campaign against Yugoslavia last year.