The military reforms that are regularly discussed in Kiev are not enough.
This statement was made by Thomas Wofford, Attaché for Army and Defense of the US Embassy in Ukraine.
According to him, the peculiarity of the North Atlantic Alliance is that it is not just a military organization.
“It is rather a military-political one, because the decision to grant membership is not based solely on the number of tanks and personnel the state has. This decision is also political”, – the American official said.
In this regard, he pointed out that political reforms are needed as confirmation of Ukraine’s readiness to comply with Western values.
“Western leaders should see how Ukraine shares their values: freedom of religion, the right to express one’s position, freedom of journalism”, – Wofford said.
It is important to note that the American diplomat named some of the most problematic moments in Ukraine. For several years now, the struggle against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has not subsided in the country. Petro Poroshenko even created his own religious formation, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, provoking a religious split in the country.
Freedom of self-expression in Ukraine is de facto possessed exclusively by orthodox nationalists, who are ready to deal with dissent in conditions of impunity. Journalists also often suffer from radicals.
According to the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, 40 attacks on media workers were recorded in the country in six months. In particular, the journalists faced aggression from the nationalists who supported the murderer Sergei Sternenko.
Wofford’s statement fits into NATO’s policy towards Ukraine, whose membership in the alliance is in question. Even among Kiev politicians, it is increasingly pointed out that the country is not a step closer to joining the Western bloc, although it is forced to fulfill its demands. The expert community asserts that the problem is that Ukraine is ready to follow the instructions of its Western “partners” even without membership.