The ongoing reform in Ukraine, including that in the Defense Ministry and the armed forces, enjoy NATO's full understanding and support, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said.

"During a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, we discussed issues related to the reform of the Ukrainian armed forces. We have a powerful group of NATO experts working in our country to help us reform our troops. Together with them, we have prepared all the necessary planning documents, the last of them being a program of development of the Ukrainian armed forces in the period up to 2020," the Ukrainian Defense Ministry quoted Poltorak as saying in Brussels.

In summing up the outcomes of his visit to NATO headquarters, Poltorak said it included discussions of Ukrainian armed forces reform, the operations of the NATO Trust Fund, and a comprehensive assistance package. "We are working successfully and in a planned manner virtually in all areas. We intend to speed up work in some of them," he said.

In commenting on prospects of Ukraine's accession to NATO, Poltorak said, "A lot of people think for some reason that accession to NATO is a business only for the Defense Ministry and the armed forces. However, membership in the alliance is a business for the entire country; after all, membership preconditions include not only the armed forces' preparedness to meet the alliance's standards but also society's preparedness."