"A major
objective for the Government and the country is to ensure the Armed Forces of
Ukraine actually become a #NATO_member. This means that all standards embedded
in the #Ukrainian_Armed_Forces must comply with the standards of the North
Atlantic Alliance", said the Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk
on Tuesday, February 16, at the Parliament during a Government's report on its
activities for 2015.
The Prime Minister
also highlighted an issue of national security and defence: "We started
from scratch to form the Ukrainian army, and therefore it was necessary to
reform the system of national security and defense, and primarily - to
fight in the eastern front against the Russian military intervention".
Arseniy Yatsenyuk
reminded that the Government together with the parliamentary coalition declared
a new security policy: "The Parliament passed a decision to abandon the
so-called non-aligned status, which was nothing more than a bribe to the
Russian Federation to make Ukraine give up on the prospect of becoming a NATO
member".
"Our course,
the course of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to follow is the full-fledged
membership in the Alliance - was backed by appropriate reforms and appropriate
funding", he stressed.
If last year the
total funding to satisfy the needs of national security and defense amounted
almost UAH 96 billion, for the current year the Government increased it up to
UAH 113 billion.
The Prime Minister
informed that for the needs of Ukrainian troops there had been purchased 100
thousand new combat helmets and body armours, 34 thousand new weaponry items:
"The Ukrainian Armed Forces added a series of new and modernized Ukrainian
and foreign armour to its arsenal".
A wide reform of
the Ukrainian Armed Forces is underway, starting with the logistics to supply
the Ukrainian Army and ending with the financing of the UAF, he stressed.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk
reminded that last year the Government had embarked on the process of increase
of social standards and wages for the Ukrainian military who are serving in the
anti-terror operation area. And this year they have managed to find sources to
double the size of cash allowance for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
As part of the reform
in the Ukrainian Army it is among those who were first to introduce
e-procurement. In the previous year it enabled to economize about UAH 200
million UAH due to the fact that an auction to purchase property objects and to
provide logistical support activities for the Armed Forces of the country was
transparent".
Moreover, the
Government fulfils its social function to support the Ukrainian military
personnel who had served in the ATO area and were demobilized, claims Arseniy
Yatsenyuk. Up to now about 160 thousand Ukrainian soldiers have been assigned
the status of ATO participant.
"Together
with our partners from NATO we have established six trust funds, which are
responsible for reforms in each particular sector of the national security and defense -
starting with training and uniforms for the Ukrainian military personnel and
ending with new advanced logistics support", he stressed.
As part of the
security policy the Government launched a project the European Rampart:
"Finally, Ukraine has started to build defensive facilities at the border
with the Russian Federation. Overall, there have been dug over 200 kilometers of
anti-tank ditch network, constructed over 70 kilometres of border barriers,
erected 32 watch towers”, he told.
Ukraine has taken
a very active stand and brought legal action against the Russian Federation for
the illegal annexation of Crimea, for the intervention of Russia to the
territory of Donetsk and Luhansk and illegal occupation of part of Ukraine’s
territory, the Head of Government of Ukraine added.
He reminded that a
number of lawsuits against the Russian Federation had been filed in the
European Court of Human Rights: "Apart from that, the Ukrainian Government
is engaged in activities to sue Russia in the International Court of Justice
(the United Nations) for violating the International Convention for
the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism".
Arseniy Yatsenyuk highlighted
that the Ukrainian State has a broad support from the international
community which imposed sanctions against an aggressor
State: "The United States of America, the European Union, G7 States introduced
financial and economic, personal and sectoral sanctions against
Russia".
The Government
proposed the Parliament to adopt the law on sanctions, he said: "For
the first time in history of the country we have created an international legal tool
to bring to justice and impose retaliatory sanctions against any State, which
is now an aggressor-state – the Russian Federation”.
He reminded that the
National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine had adopted a
decision andintroduced personal and sectoral sanctions against
Russian companies and Russian citizens. Inter alia, the Head of Government stressed,
Ukraine banned Russian airlines from using its airspace.
As part of our new
security policy there was also introduced a new information
policy. The Prime Ministerexpressed gratitude to the Parliament for the adoption of
the Law of Ukraine “On the international broadcastingsystem of
Ukraine”: "The information policy of Ukraine is now
fighting against Russian propaganda, which is actually propaganda based
on Goebbels’ principles in the Russian interpretation".
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