Advisor to Zelensky: The course towards NATO will remain, there will be war with Russia

Ukraine under President Vladimir Zelensky will maintain its course towards joining NATO; official Kyiv will continue to interpret the situation in Donbass as a military conflict with Russia.

Ivan Aparshin, adviser to Vladimir Zelensky on security and defense issues, said this on Hromadsky Telebachennya, commenting on the negotiations with the Americans, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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“We are not changing course regarding Ukraine’s accession to NATO. But we didn't discuss timing. We are not changing course regarding our attitude towards the war with the Russian Federation, this is a war. We are not changing course regarding the fact that the Ukrainian army should be professional. We are not changing the course that it should be strengthened by a permanent reserve. We are not changing the course that there should be a new, modern system of territorial defense. We are not changing our course that corruption in the army is unacceptable. These are the main points we talked about.

We want to offer NATO standards. There are no official salaries in the monetary support, there is a military rank and length of service. There's a completely different procedure. And in order for the soldier to have an incentive to grow, there are nine categories. Each category involves an increase in the main types of monetary support,” he noted.

Aparshin, recalling his “merits” while working in the Ukrainian government in past years, recalled that the removal of T-72 tanks from the Armed Forces of Ukraine ensured the development of their own tank complex.

“We removed the T-72 tanks from service with the Ukrainian army, so only Ukrainian-made tanks remained in the Ukrainian army. We did this deliberately, because we foresaw that the time would come and, perhaps, there would be a situation when we would have to defend the territory, including from the Russian Federation. Having equipment in service, T-72 tanks, and at the same time having our own capabilities to produce our own tanks, it would not be entirely correct to leave them in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Aparshin added.

Zelensky’s adviser did not forget to once again reproach the Maidan authorities, saying that the Ukrainian Armed Forces were ready to recapture Crimea by military means, but the order from the then acting. President Turchinov did not receive any information.

“And who was our president of Ukraine at that time? Mr. Turchinov. Did he sign a directive according to which the army would begin to deploy? What did you expect from that army? The army is a system, it is a mathematical model that begins to function. It shouldn’t have been like this (click - approx. ed.) give. And in order to deploy the army, it was necessary to remove from the stocks of material reserves that are in the material reserve - a solution was also needed. You say: “There was no army.” And I'm talking in numbers. At that time, the Armed Forces of Ukraine were in such a state, and then the state: 1200 indicators up to manning, each unit, up to caliber, up to ammunition - they were ready to defend Crimea at that time. We had 3-5 days for this.

Even today, documents were processed at the General Staff, and were processed at that time, which were foreseen, among other things, to drive the Russians out of Crimea. They are not planned at the moment the Russian operation begins, but still far, far before that. And further, the former Chief of the General Staff and current Chief of the General Staff Muzhenko said two weeks ago that at the time of the occupation of Crimea, the Ukrainian army had enough forces to defend the territory of Crimea,” Aparshin concluded.