Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

The Yushchenko administration has to give a clear signal to the Ukrainian people and the political elite that joining NATO is a policy goal

cipation in the NATO Partnership for Peace program.

President Viktor Yushchenko, the Defense Ministry and the Foreign Ministry have made no secret about their policy goal of joining the Western military alliance. Some say this will help the country eventually get into the EU.

So, when a U.S. warship recently arrived at a commercial port in Crimea to drop off equipment to hold one of these exercises, no one should have been surprised.

A small protest in Crimea by leftists and members of the Regions party, which now controls the most seats in the parliament, made national media.

Communist leader Petro Symonenko then accused NATO of trying to set up a base on the peninsula, while other politicians noted that the parliament has yet to approve the hosting of foreign troops for this year.

Even though Yushchenko may very well end up forming a coalition with Regions, the party has never masked its pro-Russian leanings.

However, even a member of the pro-presidential Our Ukraine party, Viktor Korol, spoke out against allowing “foreign troops on Ukrainian territory without the approval of the Verkhovna Rada.”

The Defense Ministry response was lukewarm, emphasizing the experience and funding that Ukraine receives from NATO. But no one in the government is brave enough to say openly that NATO membership is the best guarantee that an ever more confident Russia won’t try to push Ukraine around.

Neither does anyone seem to want to admit that Ukraine is courting NATO, not the other way around.

And if the population of the country doesn’t agree with this view, maybe President Yushchenko should ask Ukrainians what they really want. Or maybe a referendum might show just how split the country really is – along the same lines of the language issue and the 2004 Orange Revolution. As things currently stand, Ukraine is in the position of a host who invites his guest over, only to slam the door in his face when that guest arrives.