“It is time to act...” For the West as well as Ukraine

Foreign ministers of NATO member countries were looking for answers to global security challenges, primarily to the Russian aggression in Ukraine. Their meeting took place in the resort city of Antalya on the Mediterranean coast rather than in Brussels, its usual venue, from May 13-14. Turkey hosted such ministerial meeting for the fourth time, now involving NATO ministers of defense as well as foreign ministers. Earlier meetings took place in Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu set the gathering’s tone at once, stating, even before the summit officially started, that Russia’s actions against Georgia and Ukraine “were totally unjustifiable.” “Despite the fall of the Berlin wall, the mental barrier has stayed. Neither the EU nor Russia may force Ukraine to choose between Russia and Europe,” the foreign minister of Turkey said.

As he was opening the ministerial meeting, Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu continued the line. “The crisis in Ukraine showed how fragile Europe’s security and stability situation is. Ukraine needs support to enable it to better guarantee the security of its citizens. Supporting the Crimean Tatars and preventing their isolation is crucial under the current conditions in Crimea,” Davutoglu stressed.

Despite the wide range of issues put forward for debate (Afghanistan, Syria, Georgia), the matter of Ukraine, represented by its Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, was the focus of the summit. For Ukraine, this summit was also important due to the fact that a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission was held within its framework.

These were major events of the summit’s first day.

He also stressed that US Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Antalya right after meeting Vladimir Putin, who he talked with in Sochi for four hours. Given the level of that meeting, it seems that solutions to the major issues of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict were sought exactly there. Meanwhile, Kerry said at the NATO summit: “We hope that president Putin, Russia, and the separatists will come together to work with the government of Ukraine in order to fully implement the Minsk Accords and to make progress.” He added that the sanctions against Russia were to stay until the Minsk Accords were implemented.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Russia was responsible for its aggressive actions in Ukraine. He, too, stressed the need for urgent implementation of the Minsk Accords. “It is time to act,” he said. “The ceasefire must be complied with, heavy weapons must be withdrawn, and we call on Russia to stop supporting the separatists and to withdraw all its troops from eastern Ukraine,” Stoltenberg stressed.

Unfortunately, news from the combat zone in Ukraine were of opposite nature. Rather than withdrawing their equipment, the Russian and terrorist troops were moving it and their personnel closer to the frontlines. The Kremlin’s arms shipments keep flowing generously to the Ukrainian Donbas. NATO officials said in Antalya they were noticing and following it all, but what can the Alliance and Ukraine really do to oppose the Russian aggression?

We heard answers to this question proposed at the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission. According to Pavlo Klimkin, NATO was not in the business of providing arms, but it will enhance cooperation with Ukraine in order to strengthen security and enhance the combat capability of its armed forces. “We are working under the framework of five trust funds, and we are very much hoping to broaden this effort, to establish new funds, which will bring the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) and the security sector in general up to NATO standards,” Klimkin said.

What are the funds in question?

• The NATO Trust Fund for Modernization of the UAF’s Command and Communication Systems, designed to operate for three years, was established to assist the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine as it supports servicemen’s transition to civilian jobs through consultations, seminars, information on such experience in NATO countries.
• The NATO Trust Fund for Reforming Logistics and Standardization Systems of the UAF (to be implemented by the end of this year) assists the government of Ukraine in reforming logistics and bringing it to the operating compatibility with NATO standards, including by reforming the system of military transportation.
• The NATO Cybersecurity Trust Fund, which provides funding for the creation of Ukraine’s technical capability to repel cyber attacks, in particular a dedicated Center, as well as holds training sessions (to be implemented over two years).
• The NATO Trust Fund for Modernization of the UAF’s Communication and Information Exchange Systems will fund modernization of personnel training and purchases of equipment needed for it. This work will be carried out within two years.
• Over 24 months, the NATO Trust Fund for Supporting Ukraine’s Military Physical Rehabilitation (Prosthetics) Effort will assist Ukrainian medical institutions by sending equipment and holding training courses on different types of rehabilitation for Ukrainian doctors.

Certainly, Western aid is very important and necessary for Ukraine as it resists the Russian aggression. For this, our country must be grateful. However, helping Ukraine, NATO countries help themselves first of all, because we are at the forefront of protecting democratic values from the assault of the Kremlin, which strives to revise the global rulebook. Russia does this by capturing our territories and killing Ukrainians. Behind closed doors, representatives of the alliance recognize that NATO was not prepared for a hybrid war which Russia is waging now. Thus, they have often been at a loss for how to react. Nonetheless, the organization is now actively developing mechanisms of responding to the aggressor. This is my first point, dealing with the effectiveness of NATO, including events like the latest summit.

Secondly, the author recalls a similar meeting of NATO foreign ministers held in Brussels past summer. Frankly, not much has changed since then. The promises made then and today look almost identical. Still, the tragedy of the consequences of aggression is primarily our problem, because it is an existential issue for the Ukrainian statehood. No one will help us more than ourselves. Again, it was evident in closed meetings at the summit. The alliance’s representatives repeatedly stressed that the aid would depend on the degree to which Ukrainian government would succeed in reforming the nation. “We need internal work to be done” is the summit’s main message for Ukraine. Let us recall also that it is for changing the system that people sacrificed their lives during the Euromaidan and are sacrificing now in eastern Ukraine.