“If we are talking about reforms processes or EU accession process of Ukraine, neither of them will be successful and sustainable without proper security conditions. That’s why for us NATO membership is even more important than EU membership.”

Alyona Getmanchuk, the Director of the New Europe Center, at the panel discussion “Ukraine’s Path to Good Governance: Progress and Priorities to Address Corruption” at CSIS (Center for Strategic & International Studies) in Washington, D.C.

These are some key messages from Alyona Getmanchuk during the discussion:

• One of the reasons of decline in support to Ukraine is that there’s no clear vision of a strategy how Ukraine could actually win the war. The strategy ‘as long as it takes’ has failed. We are already in the war of attrition. And in such a war it is extremely important to send a signal to the aggressor by doing a couple of things: to help Ukraine secure financial support and to provide Ukraine with a long-term security instrument.
• Reforms process or EU accession process of Ukraine will not be successful and sustainable without proper security conditions. That’s why NATO membership for Ukrainians is even more important than EU membership.
• I am a little bit surprised that there is still a discussion in the US that Washington is doing everything while Europe is doing very little. In fact, the US has provided around 67 billion dollars of economic and military help of Ukraine, while Europe has already provided 96 billion dollars. So, Europe has already outnumbered the US in providing support for Ukraine if you collect all kinds of support, such as military, economic, humanitarian, and security.
• We are working hard to mobilize European partners that finally see Ukraine as a future member of the EU. Last year, when we were given a candidate status, it was not the point for many skeptical countries. Now, there’s a shift in that attitude. They see Ukraine as a future EU member and they think seriously how they can contribute in the accession process.