Deputy Secretary General: Ukraine is a valued NATO partner
NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller reaffirmed the Alliance’s strong support for Ukraine in a speech on Thursday (6 April 2017). Speaking at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, she said a recent meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission underscored the Alliance’s ongoing and steadfast support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Deputy Secretary General said Ukraine is a valued NATO partner and that, “NATO does not, and will not, accept Russia’s illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea. And we condemn Russia’s ongoing destabilization in eastern Ukraine.”
Ukraine has been an important NATO partner for many years, having joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council in 1991 and NATO’s Partnership for Peace program in 1994. Ms. Gottemoeller said the country is making a great deal of progress on its reform agenda and it could rely on NATO’s continued support on this issue.
Ms. Gottemoeller highlighted NATO’s Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine, which includes more than forty tailored support measures and six different multi-million-euro Trust Funds.
Among them is the Medical Rehabilitation Trust Fund, which provides support to wounded soldiers as well as to hospitals and physicians. Only last week, NATO opened a new rehabilitation facility in Kharkiv. In September, a Ukrainian team of athletes whom NATO helped to rehabilitate will compete in the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto.
After her speech, the Deputy Secretary General met Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, the Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, Deputy Prime Minister Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze and other senior government figures.