Ukraine parliament cancels legislation establishing non-alignment status

Ukraine’s parliament voted on Dec. 23 to amend a law approved by parliament four years ago that established Ukraine’s non-alignment with global military security blocs such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization led by the U.S. and the Collective Security Treaty Organization led by Russia. The vote was supported by 303 MPs, or more than 2/3 of its total members. The vote came three days after it was requested by President Petro Poroshenko at the meeting of the National Security and Defense Council.

In response to the vote, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev commented on his Facebook page that the decision turns Ukraine into “a potential military opponent to Russia,” which will have extremely negative consequences. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the decision was counterproductive. “It only pumps up the confrontation and creates the illusion that by passing such laws, it’s possible to settle a deep domestic crisis within Ukraine,” he said, as reported by the New York Times.

Zenon Zawada: Poroshenko realized that this measure was needed in order to gain more support from NATO leaders on various initiatives, which we see as his main motivation. The next step in gaining more NATO support would involve an application and pursuing a program along the lines of a Membership Action Plan, for which Ukraine applied and was rejected in 2008.

So the legislation is a positive first step in enhancing Ukraine’s national security, but we don’t expect NATO membership for as long as Russian President Putin is around. Such a move would only provoke more irrational moves from the Russian autocrat. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Norwegian television yesterday that NATO membership will take years for Ukraine, or at least six years as estimated by Ukrainian leaders.