Last week, a two-day visit of Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko to Poland took place. In the course of meetings with his Polish colleague Bronislaw Komorowski, Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz, and other high-ranked officials, politicians discussed a number of bilateral cooperation issues.
The main focus of the visit were Poroshenko’s clear messages relating to Ukraine’s foreign policy. He said during his speech in the Polish Sejm: “Under the current circumstances, when political equilibrium is destroyed, when Europe’s political stability is destroyed, we have to look for new ways of providing common security. The non-aligned status, which we declared in 2010, did not guarantee our safety and territorial integrity. Therefore I decided to bring the country back on the tracks of to Euro-Atlantic integration.” “Immediately after coming back to Ukraine, I will submit a draft law on abandonment of the non-aligned status to the parliament. Ukraine will deepen the cooperation with NATO to the maximum and will be guided by the Alliance’s standards in the defense and security sector. We must work hard before we can meet the membership criteria. My ambitious aim is to hold a referendum, so only the Ukrainian people, but not our neighbors, determine the direction of our further development,” he added.
It is very important to remind how we once abandoned the NATO course. We had great chances, and most importantly, we had carried out a lot of work in this direction.
“First of all, Kuchma was slowing down Ukraine on its way to NATO membership,” comments Volodymyr VASYLENKO, international lawyer and professor, to The Day. “Ukraine pursued the course of NATO membership at the beginning of his second presidency. Yevhen Marchuk, who was NDSC Secretary, and then defense minister, has done a lot for that. But Russia used the entire potential of its diplomacy and intelligence agencies to block Ukraine’s path to NATO. Kuchma lacked both courage and wisdom to resist this blackmail. Finally, he changed the policy to Ukraine’s non-membership in NATO. Besides, Kuchma did not mind the presence of Russian agents in the highest government echelons, which also obstructed Ukraine’s membership in NATO.”
“But the Euro-Atlantic prospects were ultimately buried by president Yanukovych,” the expert continues. “Adhering to the Kremlin’s guidelines, he completely abandoned Ukraine’s course to NATO. The non-aligned status of Ukraine was adopted during his presidency. The years of Yanukovych’s rule also became a profound hindrance: contacts with the Alliance were weakened, annual cooperation plans were not fulfilled. Most importantly, the Yanukovych regime destroyed the whole security sector of Ukraine. We also should not forget the Kharkiv agreements. He did not reform the Armed Forces and the state institutions in general in accordance with the criteria necessary for NATO membership.”
“Now this all must be restored,” Vasylenko emphasizes. “We should start with the change of legislation, abandon the non-aligned status, and resume the Euro-Atlantic course, as President Petro Poroshenko declared. Reforms must be carried out in practice. Moreover, an aggressive war with Russia requires the restoration and strengthening of the security sector according to NATO standards. Today the Alliance is ready to cooperate with Ukraine, NATO Secretary General and his assistants clearly state that NATO’s doors are open for Ukraine.”
