UKRAINIAN DEFENSE INDUSTRIES ENTER WORLD MARKET.

Because it no longer receives adequate support from the state, the Ukrainian military industrial complex is increasingly involved in arms sales abroad, Finanosovye izvestiya reported May 30. The paper noted that only 12 countries in the world now spend a smaller percentage of their GDP on military production. Military contracts now employ 1.5 million people in Ukraine, and consequently sales abroad both to Russia–which is now responsible for 70 percent of orders for Ukrainian weapons–and to other countries is a necessity. In 1994, the paper said, Ukraine earned more than $42 million from such sales, up by nearly 50 percent from the year before.

Belarusian Army Launches Reforms.