Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Roman Mashovets met with Alexander Vinnikov, Head of the NATO Representation to Ukraine, to discuss the Russian Federation's escalation of the situation in eastern Ukraine, the increasing presence of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border, possible ways of joint response and further development of Ukraine's NATO integration process.
Roman Mashovets thanked for NATO's support in the issue of Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration and bringing it closer to the standards of the North Atlantic Alliance.
"We hope that in the near future we will also receive the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP)," he said.
The Deputy Head of the Office of the President informed his interlocutor about the deteriorating security situation in Donbas. He said that since the beginning of this year, Russian troops have violated the regime of silence more than 570 times. Every week we receive sad reports of casualties among our soldiers in eastern Ukraine.
"The Russian Federation does not adhere to international agreements and demonstrates its unwillingness to conduct a dialogue in the format of the Trilateral Contact Group and in the Normandy format. The Russian party is trying to disrupt the peace process, as well as the regime of complete and comprehensive ceasefire established on July 27, 2020," said Roman Mashovets.
According to him, there is currently a concentration of Russian troops near the state border of Ukraine. Therefore, the organization of joint exercises of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the NATO military, in particular the possibility of joint air patrols with the aviation of NATO countries in the airspace of Ukraine, will help stabilize the security situation in the region.
The Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine also stressed the importance of a political response from the NATO leadership to such actions by Russia.
For his part, Alexander Vinnikov expressed condolences over Ukraine's losses in recent weeks in the fight against Russian aggression in Donbas. He stressed that all information on the security situation in the east of our country and on the border with Russia will be passed to the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels.
The NATO representative reminded that in the recent fruitful conversation between President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Secretary General of the Alliance Jens Stoltenberg, the interlocutors agreed on the need to focus on the implementation of reforms that will bring Ukraine closer to NATO.
Alexander Vinnikov noted positive changes in the field of security and defense of Ukraine, first of all, the adoption of laws on intelligence and defense procurement in 2020.
"We would like to note the adoption in the first reading of the law on the Security Service of Ukraine and look forward to the adoption of the law in the second reading, which will be a historic step towards rapprochement with NATO," he said.
The Head of the NATO Representation to Ukraine also noted the approval of the National Security Strategy of Ukraine in September 2020 and the Military Security Strategy of Ukraine in March this year, which contain a clear strategic vision of the country's defense policy and provide a platform for further development and adoption of the Strategic Defense Bulletin and other strategic documents in the field of national security and defense of Ukraine.