On Tuesday, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Andrii Parubii and Co-Chair of the Ukraine-NATO Interparliamentary Council Raynell Andreychuk informed about elaboration of a joint statement by the Co-chairs of the Ukraine-NATO Interparliamentary Council as well as about the further steps in deepening of the cooperation.

In particular, having thanked Raynell Andreychuk, Andrii Parubii said she was one of the first politicians to state that Ukraine had to be a NATO partner. According to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, "Ukraine's accession to NATO is one of the strategic goals on the way of development of the country. He reminded that during the Revolution of Dignity the delegations of the Heads of the NATO Interparliamentary Assembly came to Maidan Nezalezhnosti square along with the Chair of the Ukraine-NATO Interparliamentary Assembly Raynell Andreychuk to stay with us those days and nights, when we protected our European and Euro-Atlantic choice."

The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada said Ukraine is currently actively implementing the army reform. "We have managed to take many steps. We try to adopt the laws to strengthen our defense capacity and, which is the most important, to finally meet the NATO standards. We have obliged to harmonize the Ukrainian army with the NATO standards before 2020," he said.

Andrii Parubii said that on Tuesday, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted a very important law on defense order. The most of the people's deputies supported that draft law despite their party affiliation. He also noted that the agenda must also include the draft law No. 4563, which envisions the development of the special forces. He expressed hope for further support of Raynell Andreychuk "as a great friend of Ukraine" as well as for the support of "all Ukrainian partners in the free world" in protection of our independence.

Statement by the UNIC Co-chairs

This meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Interparliamentary Council has demonstrated once again the Assembly’s strong support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and independence as well as the Assembly’s condemnation of Russia’s aggressive policy which seeks to destabilise Ukraine politically and economically.

Following today’s programme, we warmly welcome NATO efforts to deepen cooperation with Ukraine, especially in security and defence sector reform, capability development, and capacity building. We support Ukraine’s ambition to pass reforms that will make its armed forces compatible with those of NATO member states by 2020, according to its updated military doctrine. We also welcome the fact that the Ukrainian people have an increasingly positive view of the Alliance as Ukraine’s strategic partner and increased support for the country's membership in NATO.

We strongly encourage Ukraine to continue successful implementation of the Annual National Programme (ANP) of cooperation with NATO for 2016, which identifies goals, objectives and practical measures to reform the security and defence sector. Successful implementation of this programme will contribute substantially to Ukraine’s progress towards Euro-Atlantic integration. We also encourage the Ukrainian parliament to be fully involved in monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the ANP.

We call on all NATO countries to increase bilateral assistance to Ukraine. The Euro-Atlantic community should demonstrate patience as vis-a-vis Ukraine implements military, political and economic reforms. However, Ukrainian politicians should do more to accelerate the pace of reforms and, in particular, to eradicate corruption and oligarchic influences.

We regret that the Minsk II agreement has yet to be fully implemented. We call especially on Moscow and its clients in Eastern Ukraine to stop regular violations of the ceasefire, to return to Ukraine full control of the border in Donbass and to support the conduct of local elections in the temporarily occupied territories according to Ukraine’s law. We welcome wholeheartedly the release of Nadiya Savchenko from illegal detention in Russia, but we also call on Moscow to release without delay the remaining Ukrainian political and prisoners of war illegally held in Russia.

We support the continuation of international sanctions until Russia convincingly demonstrates that it will abide by international law. This would include steps by Russia to return Crimea and the occupied territories in Donbass to Ukraine’s jurisdiction. We condemn in the strongest terms the massive violations of human rights in the illegally occupied and annexed Crimea, particularly the systematic oppression of Crimean Tatars, Ukrainians and others minorities.

The Summit in Warsaw will be an important opportunity for NATO Allies to assess Ukraine’s progress with reforms and to confirm their support for a sovereign, independent and stable Ukraine. We accordingly look forward to intensifying our work in the Ukraine-NATO Interparliamentary Council.

The Joint Monitoring Group with Ukraine was created in 1998 and adopted its current name - the Ukraine-NATO Interparliamentary Council - in 2003. This body is a parliamentary counterpart to the NATO-Ukraine Commission to demonstrate parliamentary interest and involvement in co-operation between NATO and Ukraine. Over the years, it has become an active political forum where members of parliament from NATO and Ukraine can discuss any issues of common concern and interest.