Rearmament of Ukrainian Armed Forces to meet NATO standards is long work, reform to continue after 2020 – Poltorak
Current restricted opportunities of the defense budget of Ukraine hinder the pace of rearmament of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to meet NATO standards, and the switch of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to weapons of new standard will be a long process and continue after 2020, Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak has said.
"We plan to reach NATO standards by 2020. By the end of 2018 we are to finish the reform of the ministry and then to focus on the Armed Forces," the minister said, assessing the pace of the defense reform being conducted in cooperation with NATO in an interview with obozrevatel.ua.
"In general, I do not see any big threats with the failure of our plans to reform the Armed Forces until the end of 2020, with the exception of problems with re-equipment, because the financial resource does not yet give us an opportunity to switch to new weapon models according to NATO standards," Poltorak said.
At the same time he said that "this is a long work, the reform will continue after 2020".
"We have a neighbor, Poland, which is already in the Alliance for 20 years, and they have the majority of Soviet-style weapons, although they have already partially switched to NATO standards, while Poland has a serious financial potential," the defense minister said.