Ukraine president approves national defense strategy

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on May 27 activating the nation’s National Defense Strategy, whose consists of implementing by 2020 the reforms of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement and the Ukraine 2020 Stable Development Strategy. Its main tasks are to minimize threats to sovereignty, creating the conditions for renewing Ukraine’s territory integrity, ensuring a peaceful future for Ukraine and ensuring Ukraine’s integration into the EU and forming the conditions for its entry into NATO. The main national security policy goal is identified as reintegrating the occupied territories of Ukraine after their liberation.

The document is supposed to serve as the basis for developing the nation’s security and defense concept, the military security strategy, and the cybersecurity strategy, among others. It identifies the main threat to Ukraine as Russian aggression in all of its firms, oriented towards exhausting the economy and undermining socio-political stability, with the goal of destroying the Ukrainian state and taking over its territory. Other security threats are the ineffective system of ensuring national security and defense, corruption, the economic crisis and energy dependence.

The key conditions needed for economic growth are identified by the document as deoligarchization, demonopolization and deregulation of the economy; the protection of economic competition; simplifying and optimizing the taxation system; forming a supportive business climate; and creating the conditions for accelerating innovative development.

Zenon Zawada: This document is a step in the right direction, covering the basics of what Ukraine needs to become a developed country and identifying areas that need reform. Most of what has been outlined has been known for decades but never implemented. Also most of it has been stated in various government documents, legislation and strategies over the years.

The document lacks enough specifics to be the type of national strategic plan that Ukraine needs. Such a strategy would need to identify Ukraine’s unique place in the global economic, defense and political structures and outline the specific steps and mechanisms needed to achieve that status. It would also need to be based on research to justify those conclusions. Maybe such a document exists and isn’t made public for security purposes. But what we have with the National Defense Strategy is a very basic map without any details on how to get from Point A to B through the various mountains and pitfalls.