Soldiers' families lined up on the tarmac at Kiev's Borispil airport Thursday to wave goodbye as the first contingent of 70 men boarded an Ilyushin Il-76 heading for Kuwait.

Among the troops, followed later in the day by a further 275, was Bohdan Shulika, a thirty-something captain who sighed: "It's hard to leave my wife and kid. He's only 18 months old. But I can hardly complain -- I volunteered."

Like many of his army colleagues, he chose to accept the risks of a long, hot and dangerous campaign in post-war Iraq as the price to pay for a one-off boost to his salary, currently a modest 170 dollars (150 euros) a month.

"Out there I'll earn 1,000 dollars a month extra. That's not to be sniffed at," he said.

A senior officer, Major Anatoly Dvorsky is looking forward to seeing his pay packet boosted by rather more, nearly 1,200 dollars, which will help him to pay his daughter's way through business school.

But a colleague warned him, in a shaft of dark humour, that the extra pay "could also help you to pay for your funeral."

The dangers are real. Last week Polish troops, who are overseeing the sector of Iraq in which the Ukrainians will be operating, came under mortar fire for the first time.

And overall, more than 50 American troops have died in a variety of incidents since US President George W. Bush declared major military operations to be over nearly four months ago.

"The task will not be easy and you will have to be vigilant and very professional to ensure your security and that of the local population," Defence Minister Evhen Marchuk told the troops at a departure ceremony.

Waiting in their khaki uniforms, the troops declared themselves to be "perfectly ready" for the task ahead.

"I've taken English lessons, got two weeks' special training in Poland and two months' more training at Zhitomir (in northwestern Ukraine)," said Igor, an officer with experience of peacekeeping operations in South Lebanon.

All the Ukrainian troops have been given phrase-books in conversational Arabic with information about local customs and traditions "so that we know how to act in this or that situation," Shulika said.

However the dismissal Thursday of two generals accused of "poor preparation" for the mission was hardly a good omen, and many of the troops' relatives were unhappy to see their loved ones putting themselves in harm's way.

"We tried to dissuade him from going, but he wouldn't listen," said Irina with an anxious glance at her husband Serhyi.

An elderly Ukrainian woman could hardly hold back her tears.

"If our boys were able to earn a proper living here, they wouldn't have to go to Iraq," she said, making a sign of the cross in the direction of the departing troops. "God protect our men," she murmered.

Ukraine is due to send 1,644 troops to Iraq for the mission under Polish command. Optional reinforcements could bring the number up to 1,800 by the end of the year.

The troops will regroup in Kuwait prior to heading for the Wasit region of southeastern Iraq early next week.

They are expected to patrol two of the main highways between Baghdad and southern Iraq, to deliver humanitarian aid and to guard Iraqi army munition depots.

WAR.WIRE