Ukr. soldiers sleeping til noon, cracking open the vodka, and drinking til dawn

[Larry1]

I've never given much thought to the Ukrainian army, but I came across this article in Britain's "Telegraph" that contains some blunt words from a British officer who commanded a peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone that contained a number of Ukrainian soldiers:

UN peacekeeping missions are usually roadshows for the third rate soldiers of the worst armies in the world. As it happens, I was in Sierra Leone back in 2000. One morning, I got in a helicopter and flew to a place called Port Loko to visit the UN peacekeepers based there.

I met their commander, who happened to be a British officer, and he told me about his little force. There was a bunch of Ukrainians, who typically rolled out of bed at noon, cracked open the vodka, and drank until dawn the next day, before going back to bed. The commander no longer bothered asking them to do anything.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/davidblair/100227272/forget-un-peacekeepers-africa-needs-professional-soldiers/

As I reflected on the likely responses here, if any, to this story, these two occurred to me:

1. Why is this news?  Of course you should expect Ukrainian soldiers to hit the vodka.

2. This is libel against Ukrainian soldiers and Ukraine generally.  Why are you passing along this outrageous lie?