Glen Grant comments on the prospects for Ukraine’s membership in NATO and on “failed” reforms of the Ministry of Defense

The former adviser to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Glen Grant, told about the prospects for Ukraine’s membership in the EU and NATO, shared his opinion on the presidential candidates of Ukraine, and assessed the implemented reforms of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

He told about this in the interview for Euromedia24.

Glenn Grant was a manager in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in 2016-2017, working during the year on the project "Reforming the housing system for military personnel" with financial support from the UK.

Over the 37 years of his military career, Grant was a commander of an artillery battery, worked with the operational service and police at the headquarters of the First British Corps, the headquarters of the ground forces of the British Ministry of Defense, the multinational center for the management of aviation operations of NATO aviation headquarters in Italy and four brigade services.

After he finished military career, Glen helped to implement reforms according to NATO standards in the Ministries of Defense of Estonia, Latvia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Moldova, Poland, Slovenia, Kosovo, Chile and Serbia.

- How do you assess the prospects of Ukraine to join NATO?

- Most of the NATO countries at the moment would like to see Ukraine as a member of organization. You can see it from the fact that almost every NATO country provides support in terms of training the army and other forms of support for the Ukrainian armed forces to the Ukrainian request for assistance. They would not do this if they did not take Ukraine seriously. Therefore, my answer is “yes”, people want to see Ukraine as part of NATO.

However, to join the union, Ukraine must followthe same values ​​as other members of the organization. Ukraine should also be prepared for military action.

In this respect, the military sector has a lot of work to do, despite the fact that it is strongly struggling to achieve this. Even in structural side, there is a huge disparity, a huge gap between what Ukraine has as a brigade and what is considered a brigade in Western countries.

- How many years it can take for Ukraine to join NATO?

- This is a good question. Any day during NATO's political discussions in the North Atlantic Council, they can accept Ukraine as a member; it could be done easily, as, for example, it happened with the Baltic state. However, I suppose that NATO wants to see a change in Ukraine’s relationship with Russia before accepting it as a member.

President Poroshenko said that Ukraine will be admitted until 2023, but you need three iterations of the approval of the accession plan before the organization accepts you, therefore I think it will be from 6 to 8 years, and this is the earliest when Ukraine can be admitted.

- How do you assess the statement Poroshenko that he will apply as a deputy to the European Parliament in 2024?

- My answer will be: good luck to him. I think it is important for people to understand that the president is not God, he was chosen by millions to represent the country on their behalf, but he cannot do whatever he wants, and also it’s not so easy to become a deputy in the European Parliament. Moreover, the parliamentary elections are still far away: no one can say exactly what will happen tomorrow, therefore the only thing we can do about this statement is to smile and say: “Good luck. This is a good idea".

As we know, our country can be represented in the European Parliament only if it is a full member of the EU. Do you think this is possible?

To join the European Union, you need to endure a huge number of changes. I was in Latvia when they were going to join the EU, and even after the application of a huge number of laws and the adoption of EU values, it turned out that the language did not have enough words to be able to join the EU, so they had to create 11 thousand new words in Latvian language because there was simply no alternative in Latvian, and you will have the same thing with the Ukrainian language.

This is just one point, and besides, there are a huge number of laws that must be passed, and you must pass them before you can get the right to join the EU. You cannot say: “I will join EU, and then we will pass laws”, you need to do this in advance.

But the task is not only to pass a law, but also to harmonize it with all other laws, the Constitution and international documents that have the same power of the rule of law.

When the president says that you are going to join the EU by 2024, of course, it could be considered only as an element of pre-election campaigning - it is simply unrealistic for the period of four years.

- What do you think about Vladimir Zelensky and do you believe in his victory?

- I don’t have a definite attitude towards both candidates in terms of who is good or bad. The only thing I don’t like is when somebody twists the truth. The people want to see someone who speaks the truth and keeps his promises. However, whom to choose, this is the decision of the Ukrainians.

- Did Poroshenko succeed in implementing the planned reform package in the Ministry of Defense during the 4 years of his rule?

- No, there were very few proper reforms in the Ministry of Defense. There are only administrative changes, cosmetic repair. I mean the introduction of a new form and a change in soldiers’ diet - it can take up to 3 months, at worst - 6, but not as many as 4 years. This is not a reform at all, I think.

Reform must introduce conceptual changes. For example, the failure is related to housing: despite the support from other countries, such as the UK, despite all the advice and modern ideas, construction tasks are not fulfilled. Ukraine wasted a lot of money because it chooses companies that are not able to provide the promised services. That's where you can see that the reform of the Ministry of Defense failed: if it had been done correctly, there would be very few housing problems.