NATO specialists coming to Ukraine to organize trust funds

Photo: lenta-ua.net

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is beginning preparations for setting up four trust funds in Ukraine aimed at supporting the defensive capacity of our country. It is planned that the actual implementation of the projects will begin in December, while Kyiv still has a number of organizational issues to settle.

Non-lethal assistance

Next week a group of NATO specialists will arrive in Ukraine for consultations on organizing the operation of a trust fund for reforming and modernization of the logistics system of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, head of NSPA (NATO Support Agency) project in Ukraine Vasyl Lytvynchuk told Capital. “The specialists are coming to conduct the first expert consultations on the logistics fund. There have already been several visits for the medical assistance fund; we have discussed the path of the project’s development,” he says.

Overall, four trust funds will be organized in Ukraine. Their creation was announced after NATO’s summit in Wales in September. The projects will be executed in the spheres of cyber security, logistics, communications and control systems and rehabilitation of wounded soldiers. Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the execution of the special projects with NATO would begin in December.

As Capital learned medical aid will be provided in two areas: assisting in prosthetics and opening of rehab centers. The latter will be provided with equipment and specialists are already being trained for them. NATO representatives already inspected medical centers in Irpen (Kyiv oblast), Lviv and Khmilnyk (Vinnytsya oblast) to see whether rehab centers for the servicemen from the ATO zone could be set up there.

Nowhere to hurry

Former Deputy Defense Minister Ihor Kabanenko, who up until recently oversaw the issues of European integration and cooperation with NATO, told the publication that the total volume of financing of the four funds will amount to “dozens of millions of euro”. The alliance has already determined the countries that will be responsible for creation of each fund, while the financial donors have made their first contributions. However, he refused to name them referring to internal NATO information.

Director of information analytical company Defense Express Serhiy Zgurets believes that the issues of logistics and re-equipment of the communications systems are among the most vulnerable in the ATO zone. He says that NATO’s experience should help solve the problems of repairs of the equipment and hardware, supply of spare parts, property, munitions and also medical supplies and procurement. “The issue of re-equipment of communication systems still hasn’t been resolved and has been up in the air for a long time. I think execution of the trust fund will help create an effective vertical of communication from a private to a commander of a brigade and the Ministry of Defense,” he said.

Kabanenko says the terms of execution of the projects will depend on the quickness of actions and approval of decisions by Ukraine, although our country is not demonstrating particular activeness. “For example the responsible authority at our level still has not been determined for the logistics fund. NATO has already done its work, while I see no progress here,” he told Capital.