This year the United States plans to move beyond emergency response and focus on defense cooperation in Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt has said.

"Especially this year, in 2016, our goal is to move beyond emergency response that deals with the immediate crisis of Russia’s invasion and focus on defense cooperation aimed at helping Ukraine to build the NATO-standard military structures and institutions," he said at the Ukrainian Defense & Security Forum 2016 in Kyiv on Thursday.

The ambassador said that he is very encouraged to hear the positions of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Defense Minister of Ukraine Stepan Poltorak on a strong focus on defense sector reform.

"We want to see Ukraine continue to make progress in developing modern military doctrines; to implement the excellent recommendations that the RAND Corporation has made for defense sector reform; and to improve Ukrainian interoperability with NATO partners and allies," Pyatt said.