Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) on May 6 approved the National Security Strategy to 2020, the country's main defense-planning document.
“The main thing in this strategy is to create a new system of national security and defense which can guarantee Ukraine’s state sovereignty and territorial integrity against a whole host of potential threats, primarily, a military aggression,” NSDC spokesperson said after its meeting Kyiv on Wednesday.
The strategy aims to implement the national security priorities, as well as the reforms stipulated by the European Union-Ukraine Association Agreement and the Ukraine-2020 sustained development strategy before 2020, the spokesperson said.
“NSDC also considered [measures] to boost the country’s defensive capability and further measures to ensure it. It thoroughly analyzed the military threats and possible scenarios, emergency measures to counter a military aggression,” the spokesperson said.
The Council also decided to develop the potential and the system of monitoring the national defense industry, providing the Armed Forces and the National Guard with domestically-produced modern weapons and military hardware and updating its missile technologies.
“An inter-agency commission has been formed in charge of the national defense industry (NSDC working agency),” the spokesperson said.
The Council also decided to develop and expedite the legal framework to toughen the fight against crime, in particular, the law “On national police,” the spokesperson said.
“The set of urgent crime-fighting measures will be aimed primarily at preventing and investigating very serious crimes involving the use of a firearm, such as premeditated murders, banditry, illegal imprisonment and corporate raids,” the spokesperson said.
At the meeting NSDC also heard a report by Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov on progress being made in high-profile inquiries.
It was reported that on April 9 NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov, while presenting a draft of the national security strategy, outlined the main threats to national security and the priorities in the country’s domestic policy.
In presenting the draft Strategy in Kyiv, Turchynov said that it sees “Russia’s aggressive policy among the main threats.” Other threats include corruption and the inefficient public-administration system, the economic crisis, the country’s limited financial resources and the fall in the Ukrainian living standards.
Under the draft Strategy, Ukraine sees its European and Euro-Atlantic integration as a priority of its foreign and domestic policies, Turchynov said.
“Ukraine’s main foreign-policy priority is to deepen its strategic partnership with the United States as a guarantor of international security in the Euro-Atlantic region,” he said. “Ukraine strives to develop its relationship and partnership with the United Kingdom, Poland, as well as Canada, Australia, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Romania, Moldova, Georgia – the countries that Ukraine sees as reliable allies. Partnership with Germany and France, with the EU and NATO states nations which provide substantial aid to Ukraine are also considered a priority,” the NSDC secretary said.
He also said that the Ukrainian authorities are working to renew its missile defense system. “The main focus is on renewing Ukraine’s missile shield. This work is being carried out without breach of our international obligations,” Turchynov said, without elaborating on the work carried in this area.
In this context, the NSDC secretary also said that the authorities are working to create an aerospace intelligence system.
