Ukraine’s national security council determined earlier this
year that its main goal for the immediate future would be to gain
admission into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Ukraine’s president and parliament supported the move. An
opinion poll indicated that approximately 47 percent of the public
favors joining NATO.
Ukrainian officials interviewed in Washington said the country
is willing to make the necessary sacrifices to be brought into the
alliance, and recognized that a long road of economic, political
and social changes must be made, before the Ukraine could even be
considered as a candidate for NATO membership. Widespread political
problems will first have to be eliminated, said several experts.
“Ukraine is really far from meeting the NATO criteria for
level of democracy,” said Arkady Moshes, head of Russia-Europe
relations at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, in
Helsinki. Aside from problems with human rights, he said, “Ukraine
is a country where freedom of the press is far from real, where
the journalists get murdered. It is an oligarchic, clan-type political
system. Governors are not elected but appointed by the president,”
Moshes added.
“Ukraine is not in the same league even as other current
NATO aspirants, such as Bulgaria and Romania. I say this on the
basis of a lot of data in the areas of human rights, political and
economic problems,” said Thomas Szayna, of Rand Corp.
Ukraine, with a population of 50 million, is situated between Russia
and Europe, bordering several current NATO aspirant countries, in
addition to sophomore NATO members Poland, Hungary and the Czech
Republic.
A NATO-Ukraine commission has been meeting in Brussels since 1997,
when NATO and Ukraine signed a partnership treaty. The commission
meets monthly at the ambassadorial and foreign/defense ministerial
levels. The panel will meet in November in Prague at the NATO Summit.
The NATO-Ukraine relationship has improved since Russia and NATO
established a new “special partnership” this summer,
officials said. “Before, we had to balance our views between
NATO and the Russian Federation. We use Russian gas and oil sources,
so it was not easy to say no to them,” said a Ukrainian official
who requested anonymity.
Ukraine has made several high-profile military commitments to NATO
peacekeeping operations and to U.N. operations. Ukraine operates
the Yavoriv military range, a large military test range that NATO
uses at least twice a year for exercises. Ukraine also operates
some of the largest cargo planes in the world, such as the AN-270,
the Mriya, which is manufactured domestically. Ukraine has lent
the plane to NATO for numerous airlift operations for items such
as aircraft engines, the official said. The planes were used most
recently to transport vehicles and personnel to Afghanistan from
Europe. In July, NATO signed a memorandum of understanding with
Ukraine, to secure the nation’s support for strategic airlift
missions.
Ukrainian forces currently are contributing to NATO operations
in Bosnia-Herzegovina. A Ukrainian-Polish battalion is operating
in the region, conducting peacekeeping missions. Ukrainian forces
are also active in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leon.
Ukraine additionally provides air space and overflight rights to
the U.S.-led coalition war in Afghanistan.
During the past several years, the Ukrainian government has strived
to eliminate its cache of former Soviet nuclear weapons, the official
said. Through the U.S.’ Nunn-Lugar Act for cooperative threat
reduction, Ukraine has dismantled its nuclear warheads, and has
returned parts to Russia for further destruction. Ukraine is taking
steps to prevent the proliferation of nuclear components, the official
noted.
Following an air show accident in Ukraine this summer, where at
least 80 people died, the president of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, increased
the country’s defense budget to almost 2 percent of its domestic
product, one of the prerequisites for joining the alliance.
Secretary-General of NATO Lord George Robertson led a NATO delegation
to Ukraine in July. In public comments, he said that Ukraine is
a modern, developed nation, proceeding along to road of Euro-integration.
He expressed NATO’s willingness to assist the country in its
goal for membership in the alliance.