Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has called on leaders of the country's Defense Ministry and Armed Forces to develop non-standard and asymmetric responses to any scenarios and plans of the enemy, as well as the speedy completion of the transition to NATO standards. The head of state also announced a number of measures strengthening the state's defensive capacity.

"Today we must move the bar to a completely different height: new technologies, modernization, arming and rearmament, the transition to NATO standards, taking into account our unique experience of resisting aggression," Poroshenko said on Thursday morning from the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada, addressing the parliament with his annual message about the internal and the external situation of Ukraine.

Poroshenko said renewal of weapons systems is based on the strategy of import substitution, noting that the country since 2013 continues to reduce its dependence on Russian supplies.