A professional sergeant corps of the level of the world's leading armies will be established in the Armed Forces of Ukraine until 2020, chief sergeant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, department head for work with the sergeant staff of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Oleksandr Kosynsky, has said.

"The work is carried out in several directions, in particular, to improve the system of training sergeants and soldiers. Training centers have been established that are almost identical to the corresponding educational institutions of NATO countries in terms of structure, functions and tasks. Basic and intermediate level leadership courses are introduced, two-level courses of instructors are also provided," Kosynsky said at a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.

According to Kosynsky, to this day the sergeant staff of the Armed Forces is trained in the relevant schools abroad, in particular, at the NATO School in Oberammergau (Germany).

In addition, a number of courses for Ukrainian military in the country are conducted by instructors from the United States, Canada, Britain, Latvia and Lithuania.

He said that the reform of the professional sergeant corps was activated in 2015, after the beginning of Russian aggression.

Answering a question from the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine agency about the number of sergeants in the Ukrainian army planned for 2020, he said: "Approximately 1,700 people, but we must take into account the staff turnover and constant training of sergeants. Our task is to reach another indicator - the number of trained sergeants a year. And we plan to train 500 sergeants a year."