Dear U.S. Sen. John McCain:
I’m writing to you on behalf of the People’s Defense Initiative, a volunteer group helping the military.
We primarily see our main goal as the development of democracy in Ukraine and want our nation to have a European future, for the sake of which the Ukrainian people protested on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv in 2013-2014 and drove disgraced ex-President Viktor Yanukovych from power.
We started to help the army in April 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea, and the Ukrainian Navy withdrew from the peninsula. Our purpose was to support the Navy’s recovery and counter the Russian threat from the sea.
First, we have provided financial and material assistance to our Navy in order to restore and build capabilities to resist Russian aggression.
Since October 2014, we have directed all our efforts to carry out systemic reforms to adopt the approaches and practices of European Union and NATO member states in the fields of security and public administration. For this purpose, we have set up the Committee for the Ukrainian Navy’s Renewal and Development.
In April, our committee and the Ukrainian navy initiated a pilot project to reform the Navy, with objectives set for 2020 and experts from the U.S., the U.K., Sweden and Norway participating. The result of this work was a truly revolutionary document with options for the Ukrainian Navy’s development depending on funding and risks, as well as a set of recommendations on how to implement this reform based on Western experience.
Unfortunately, reactionary forces at the Navy are scared of these changes to such an extent that they have blocked our initiatives and are trying to drown them in the swamp of bureaucracy. But we continue our struggle, using the trust that Ukraine’s leadership and the armed forces have in us.
For this goal, we have created the People’s Defense Initiative.
On Oct. 13, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak made me a member of a working group to implement the pilot project on naval reform launched in April.
We want genuine reforms in the Ukrainian armed forces and in other fields. We want our Ukrainian Navy to become strong and to be able to deter and repel Russian aggression, which may continue for a long time.
We appreciate very much the United States’ support for democratic processes in Ukraine, and your personal attention to the problems and needs of Ukrainian sailors and marines.
We ask for your assistance in our efforts to reform the Ukrainian Navy.
Natalya Zeynalova is chairwoman of the board of the People’s Defense Initiative.
