NATO Advise Ukraine on Military Education Reform

KYIV, Ukraine, July 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization experts will provide counseling for their Ukrainian colleagues in conducting the military education reform. Thus, the Eastern European country will reform its military education in accordance with the international NATO standards. This was stated by the Head of Ukraine Mission to NATO Ihor Dolhov at the NATO Day in Ukraine conference, as reported by radiosvoboda.org.

Future NATO counseling for Ukraine is part of the Defence Education Enhancement Program (DEEP), adopted by NATO in 2012. DEEP brings together senior educators from member countries with their counterparts from partner countries, including Ukraine, as to improve educational agenda and learning methods.

"New areas of Ukraine-NATO cooperation emerge, the largest of them being military education. The government approved the military reform program until 2017. It provides for a further reduction of the army… Obviously, we want to make sure that the standards of military education are the best and most up to date," commented Dolhov.

The complex state program of development and reform of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, among other primary goals, envisages modernization of military education. "The main objective of the program is, first of all, training armed forces commanding officers: from lieutenants to senior officers," stated Ukraine's Defense Minister Pavlo Lebedyev in June 2013.

Notably, within the lines of NATO-Ukraine educational cooperation, the Eastern European country regularly hosts two major military exercises - Rapid Trident and Sea Breeze. Both maneuvers involve international military forces reenacting scenarios modeled after real-life crisis situations in order to advance the skills of their military forces in guarding strategic sites and humanitarian aid, medical evacuation, airborne forces grounding, marine security issues, etc.

Rapid Trident 2013 is currently taking place on the base of Sahaydachnyi International Military Center in Lviv region (July 8-9, 2013). 50 defence agencies representatives from 15 partner countries participate in this year's U.S.-Ukraine military exercise.

Moreover, Ukraine is an active partaker in NATO peacekeeping missions and anti-pirate operations. For instance, Ukraine announced its decision to take part in NATO's anti-pirate operation - the Ocean Shield. Thus, in 2012, Ukraine became the first non-member of the organization to join the Ocean Shield.