It has been 25 years since Ukraine joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace program, which promotes and strengthens cooperation between former Eastern Bloc states and the 29-member military alliance of North American and European countries.
That date was the starting point for the young Ukrainian nation in its long and complicated dialogue with Brussels, a conversation that has been driven by Ukraine’s hope of moving westward and out of Russia’s sphere of influence.
Since 1994, 13 nations participating in the Partnership for Peace program have successfully joined NATO — but not Ukraine, despite numerous key milestones in cooperation and assurances that the country will gain membership some sunny day.
Twenty-five years of close relations between the alliance and Ukraine have not yet ended in a happy marriage — despite the fact that Kyiv has never given up on courting Brussels. But why?
Western envoys to Kyiv debated that on May 28 during “25 Years of NATO Engagement in Ukraine: The Way Ahead,” a discussion hosted by the Ukrainian Transatlantic Platform organization and moderated by Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner.
‘Ups and downs’
Barbora Maronkova, the director of NATO’s Information and Documentation Center in Kyiv, said that the alliance and Ukraine have had a very long and sometimes rocky history.
“In every relationship, you have ups and downs,” she said.
“And if you want a relationship to work and advance, both sides have to make it work. And the essence of every successful relationship is trust. And it is extremely important for an organization like NATO, which is a collective defense organization, because you have to trust your allies, and you have to be committed to the defense of your ally with your own men and women.”
In 2014, a new chapter in the relationship began. It came amid difficult times in Ukraine — a Russian invasion of the country’s Crimean peninsula and eastern Donbas region — but started on a much more promising note.
Need for NATO
The war with Russia drove home the need for both NATO membership and military reform. Now, with its ambitious defense transformation plan, which aims to achieve full inter-compatibility with NATO by the end of 2020, Ukraine is demonstrating a “strong will and commitment” to reform, Maronkova said.
While Ukraine is on its way to NATO, everyone should optimistic, but prudent. As Canadian Ambassador Roman Waschuk said, Kyiv still has a lot of work ahead.
Meanwhile, NATO should have a more strategic approach to Kyiv, the Canadian diplomat said.
“Ukraine has developed, considerably, its military capacity (since 2014),” he said.
“But it’s developed it largely doing it the way it knew how to. In other words, you double the size of the military, but doing it largely with post-Soviet methodology because there was no time in 2014–2015 to certainly do it any different way.”
From his trips to Brussels, Waschuk has noticed that NATO, just like any major organization, tends to “ultimately reduce things to checklists.”
It expects Ukraine to gradually meet different criteria that make it compatible with NATO’s universal practices. But there is also a bigger picture on the ground when it comes to military standards and instructions.
Caring for troops
“Command and control are important issues, and there has been major progress achieved at the very end of (former President Petro) Poroshenko’s term on this between the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense,” Waschuk said. “But, for example, improving living conditions and catering for troops is also important. It may not fall entirely (within the framework of the defense reform), but, for a soldier, better boots, better food, a place to sleep can be really important.”
So, for Brussels, there needs to be a more holistic approach to what Ukraine is doing, he added.
In this respect, some NATO nations have been embarking on a more effective course: helping teach Ukraine’s defense and security sector skills that can make the country more desirable in the ranks of the alliance someday.
For this reason, the United States, Canada, and the U.K. are helping Ukraine to equip and train soldiers, officers and military police personnel — aid that brings Ukraine a significant step closer to NATO standards.
Achieving ‘critical mass’
“I think we will come soon to a point where these individual contributions will start to achieve a critical mass,” Waschuk said. “And that will allow Ukraine to present its case and contribution to European security in a more compelling way.”
But, then again, cooperation with NATO is a two-way street. While receiving new knowledge, Ukraine must be a diligent and fast-learning student, which will allow it to be gradually embedded into NATO’s strategic defense landscape.
And Ukraine has a lot to offer.
Ukraine has already been making contributions to NATO operations, British Ambassador Judith Gough noted.
And even now, Ukraine has strong military capabilities that many other nations fall short of — but the problem here is that not all NATO members are aware of this and are not as open to Ukraine as Canada or the United Kingdom.
“I think there is something in our communication in this that says: here is Ukraine… and here’s what we bring to the table,” Gough said. But that message must reach other NATO members.
“You are, after all, a nation that is engaged in a confrontation with Russia — that is the knowledge and understanding that other alliance allies (would appreciate and value),” she added.
As Ukraine pushes ahead with reforms, it is important to remember that, while the frontline of Russia’s war in Donbas is 2,000 kilometers from Berlin, it is not simply a Russo-Ukrainian war, Verkhovna Rada Deputy Speaker Oksana Syroid said. Rather, Russia’s war is on the Western world.
“From this perspective, it is a core interest of NATO to have Ukraine on board,” Syroid said. “Under any conditions — if not a full-scale member, then as a bilateral agreement, a multilateral agreement.
“Because as history shows, if only Ukraine falls…its resources will be used against the West.”
