The United States can help Ukraine defend its next presidential elections from Russian cyberattacks and Ukraine is now closer to NATO membership than ever before, White House National Security Adviser John Bolton said as he visited Ukraine on Aug. 24.
Bolton came to Ukraine to meet with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, and “other Ukrainian officials,” and to attend the military parade that marked the country’s 27th Independence Day.
Cybersecurity for presidential elections
At the press briefing after the “meaningful” parade and meeting, Bolton said that he and Ukraine’s officials had agreed to go through possible actions the two countries can take to keep Ukraine’s 2019 presidential elections safe from possible Russian cyberattacks.
According to Bolton, the U.S. can help Ukraine look at the issue of cybersecurity through “law enforcement channels and through other mechanisms” to “prevent Russia’s election meddling here.”
The U.S. and Ukrainian sides have already talked about cybersecurity cooperation at “several meetings.”
“We are ready to work with the government of Ukraine,” Bolton said. “[The Russians] shouldn’t engage in election meddling in the U.S. and certainly by inferencing in Ukraine and elsewhere.”
Russian aggression in Ukraine
Bolton also mentioned that, at the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland on July 16, U.S. President Donald Trump had underlined that America “does not recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea” and denounces Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“We need the Minsk process to work,” Bolton said, referring to a package of measures overseen by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to bring an end to the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine.
Asked at the briefing about Russia denying having any troops in the Donbas and whether the U.S. has any undeniable proof of the opposite, Bolton underlined that if it was not true, why would Russia take part in conversations about the war in Ukraine.
“The very fact that the Russian side has been engaged in extensive conversation about the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force in the Donbas is at least an implicit recognition by Russia itself that there’s a problem that they are a part of,” he said.
Ukraine’s NATO membership
Since independence in 1991, NATO accession has been on the periphery of Ukraine’s political ambitions.
Ukraine was one of the countries the U.S. President George W. Bush administration wanted to “put on the fast track” to NATO membership back in 2008.
“That was not agreed to by some of our European colleagues, unfortunately,” said Bolton, who has a reputation in Washington as an extreme hawk.
“But now I think in this administration, in particular, there’s active consideration, given to Ukraine’s interest. A number of steps have been taken. A lot depends on Ukraine, and fulfilling the requirements necessary to meet…to be a NATO member.”
“Progress is being made, (but) there’s more to accomplish,” he added.
Ukraine’s gas dependence
Bolton has also spoke about energy issues, including Ukraine’s gas dependence on Russia and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.
According to him, the problem is not only the economic significance of Europe being heavily dependent on Russia for the supply of natural gas and petrol, but also the strategic importance of it as well.
“Obviously when you are tied effectively to a monopoly supplier of critically needed energy like natural gas, there’s more than economic cause that can be imposed,” Bolton said. “Why would Europe voluntarily tie itself even more to Russian energy suppliers?”
The alternative for Ukraine and other countries, according to him, is to look for other sources of natural gas, including luring international companies to drill in Ukraine itself.
“There could be American or other international energy companies to explore and drill here in Ukraine,” Bolton said, adding that there’s also gas in Azerbaijan.
“It’s important for the Ukrainian government to look at these alternatives “so they are not dependent on Russia,” which may leave Ukraine at risk “that the Russians will not supply adequate gas or even if they commit to doing that that they don’t live up to their commitments.”
White House National Security Adviser John Bolton talks at the press briefing held on Aug. 24 in Kyiv.
