Commander-in-Chief: Ukraine’s Armed Forces get enhanced opportunities for cooperation with NATO

“This status opens up much greater opportunities for our troops, in particular in sectoral interoperability with NATO, access to almost all Alliance exercises, intelligence sharing, enhanced cooperation in maintaining security in the Black Sea, and so on. The Armed Forces of Ukraine seek to make the most of the opportunities provided by the Program. So, there is an interest in involving crisis consultations in their early stages. We gained some experience by participating in the preparation of the Assessment of the Security Situation in the Black Sea Region last year and are ready to continue this mutually beneficial practice,” Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel-General Ruslan Khomchak said in an interview with ArmyInform media outlet.

He also noted that Ukraine was interested in more intensive involvement of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in individual and collective training activities organized and conducted in NATO, in particular, in exercises on the subject of Article 5 of the Washington Treaty. “Among other things, and according to the scenarios of collective defense and crisis response. In addition, we are considering holding positions at Allied headquarters that will be related to more functional tasks, not just military cooperation,” Khomchak added.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is confident that granting Ukraine the status of a member of the Enhanced Opportunity Program will be mutually beneficial for both the Alliance and Ukrainians. “[The] independent, democratic, sovereign and strong Ukraine is the key to European security. In addition, NATO officers have already borrowed heavily the combat experience from our soldiers,” he noted.

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