NATO ‘strategic advisors’ from the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Lithuania arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday as part of an ongoing effort to reorganize Ukraine’s military to alliance standards. However, Kiev’s acknowledgement that the advisors also “discussed the situation in the east of Ukraine” has observers concerned. Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak met with the advisors on Tuesday. According to a Ministry press release, the meeting was devoted to “proceeding to the practical stage of work” between NATO strategists and the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Poltarok stressed that alliance advice and assistance at all levels was crucial, and that advisors would soon be meeting with the heads of the Defense Ministry reform subcommittees.
Worryingly, the Defense Minister also confirmed that the two sides “discussed the situation in eastern Ukraine.” That region has been embroiled in a civil war since April 2014, when Kiev moved its army into the Donbass, where local residents came out in opposition to the Maidan coup d’tat in February of that year. Locals quickly formed militia units, and the two sides fought a fratricidal war against one another until February 2015, when they agreed to a ceasefire deal in talks brokered by Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
NATO and Ukraine have several agreements on the provision of assistance to modernize the country’s military, but this is the first time in recent memory that officials publically admitted to strategic discussions at a senior level regarding the conflict in Donbass. Before that, since 2014, when Kiev gave up its non-aligned status, Ukraine’s Armed Forces have hosted NATO advisors in the country’s western and central regions with regularity.
This post was published at Sputnik News
Follow on Twitter
Recent Comments