The defense-industrial sector in the socio-political discourse of Ukraine in the first half of the 1990s

Abstract

This scholarly article examines and analyzes the place and role of the defence-industrial complex in the socio-political discourse of Ukraine during the first half of the 1990s. The significance of the defence-industrial complex is traced within the context of the post-Soviet transformation of the restored Ukrainian state, the economic crisis, and the formation of national security priorities. It is demonstrated that in public statements by politicians, parliamentary debates, and the activities of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the defence-industrial complex was constructed, on the one hand, as a strategic resource of national security and, on the other, as an excessive burden inherited from the Soviet past for the budget of a young state transitioning to market-based economic relations.

It is established that the socio-political discourse evolved along several, at times contradictory, vectors: from the conversion of defence enterprises and the export of armaments as the only source of rapid foreign currency revenues, to concerns over deindustrialisation and the decline of defence capability amid potential security challenges. Attention is also paid to the prevailing rhetoric surrounding the privatisation of defence enterprises, their retention under state ownership, and the chronic issues of financing the state defence order. The study reveals that most political forces tended to perceive the defence-industrial complex not as a long-term instrument of state modernisation, but rather as a heavy legacy of the totalitarian past, which contributed to the sector’s crisis and further erosion of its technological potential.

The article concludes that the absence of a coherent state strategy for the development of the defence-industrial complex, parliamentary political fragmentation, and the largely declarative nature of the programmes of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine deepened the crisis in the defence industry, which remained trapped between the imperative of ensuring national security and persistent underfunding.