The defense review of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which is mandatory for countries applying for NATO membership, could well start as soon as next year, Ukrainian Defense Minister Volodymyr Shkidchenko believes. “Since we expressed a wish to join NATO in the future we must meet the requirements of the alliance,” Interfax-Ukraine quotes the defense minister as saying. As he put it, the defense review is not a direct order to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and the Defense Ministry has come up with a proposal to set up a task force to conduct the defense review with specialists enlisted from different structures to be headed by one of the vice premiers of Ukraine. “No matter how confident we might be that we know full well the problems of the military, the defense capacity of the state, and the defense sector, we could always do with an outsider’s view of the problem from a different perspective,” he said. The minister stated that alliance specialists will “play a key role” in conducting the defense review. “I am confident that this will not turn into inventory taking of armaments and materiel. This is a review of the structure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, its management principles, and the extent to which they are compatible with the armed forces of the alliance member states,” Gen. Shkidchenko stressed. The Defense Minister expressed regret at the fact that the defense analysis and, in part, the issue of compliance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with NATO standards “are often interpreted in Ukraine in a primitive way, say, we will have to replace all armament and hardware.”
“The alliance is not interested in what kind of tank we will have. It is only essential for the radio stations mounted on this tank to enable communication with armored divisions and other control elements of NATO member states. It is essential that the fuel hose used to refuel the tank should fit both NATO and our refueling installations. It is essential for the types of fuel we use match the types of fuel the alliance uses. No one is talking of scraping everything we have and adopting all NATO armaments,” the minister said. Gen. Shkidchenko also stressed that the defense review is not a matter of a few days and may well take a year to be completed.
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The Ukrainian Defense Ministry will independently set the goals and priorities for the defense review to be conducted next year by NATO military experts. “We will offer recommendations in the areas that will be designated by your Defense Ministry,” said NATO Information and Documentation Center Director Michelle Durres, commenting on Ukrainian Defense Minister Volodymyr Shkidchenko’s statement to the effect that the military department is ready for the next year’s defense review. According to Mr. Durres, representatives of the Ukraine-NATO working group are to meet in Yalta in late October this year to discuss the issues of defense reform implementation. “We will discuss our cooperation in pursuing the defense reform with eighty priorities set, which was stressed in a Ukraine-NATO Council communiquй released in July this year,” the center director underscored.
