Reforming Ukrainian Defense: No Shortage of Challenges Russie.Nei.Visions, No. 101, Ifri, May 2017
Ukraine’s conflict with Russia has highlighted the catastrophic state of Ukraine’s defense apparatus.
Three years after the Euromaidan protests and as the war in the east continues, the government has pursued significant military reforms. Kiev has published new strategic documents which reflect the complexity of the challenges facing Ukrainian national security. Pressure from NATO comes in addition to pressure from civil society, which manifests itself in numerous ways. Nonetheless, military reform in Ukraine is still suffering from a number of constraints related to the amount of resources available, resistance on the part of various national players and conflicts between different institutions.
Isabelle Facon is a Senior Research Fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), where she works on Russian security and defense policy. She is a Senior Lecturer at the École Polytechnique, where she leads the “Geopolitics of Eurasia” seminar.