The Ukrainian Defense Ministry is experiencing difficulties in carrying out its reform and requires assistance from foreign advisors, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said at a meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

"We have started huge work on reforming the defense agency. The work on drawing up strategic documents is super-important, and it has turned out to be super-difficult. But it is even more difficult to implement the planned reforms and put what's written on paper into practice. And we expect assistance from foreign advisors in this. I am sure we can manage to do everything together," Poltorak said.

Thirty-two advisors from 12 NATO member-states and five high-level strategic advisors from the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, Lithuania, and Germany are working in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and armed forces to provide qualified expert and consultative assistance in various aspects of the Ukrainian armed forces' activities and are involved in training Ukrainian personnel based on NATO's methodology and standards, he said.