NATO is willing to provide financial, advisory and other assistance to Ukraine so Ukraine’s realistic requests and abilities to use this assistance are key. This opinion was expressed by Co-director of Foreign Relations and International Security Programmes of the Razumkov Centre Oleksiy Melnyk, informs the website Obozrevatel .
After Justice and Home Affairs Council had proposed to strengthen visa waiver suspension mechanism on May 20, Ukrainians started to beware of its synchronisation with lifting visa requirements for Ukraine that would cause a delay in granting visa-free regime to Ukrainians. Fears were intensified by some EU members’ ministers, who sceptically commented on visa liberalisation for Ukrainians. Ukrainian civil organisations published a joint statement to warn EU institution about significant risks of postponing visa liberalisation.
The results of the survey conducted by GfK Ukraine on request of the Institute of World Policy.
Answering the question, what should the Ukrainian government do, if the EU does not provide the prospect of membership to Ukraine in the nearest future, almost half of the respondents have unanimously given priority to reforms. 46% of them have chosen the “they have to carry out the reforms first, and only then to talk about EU membership” option.
Deployment of the OSCE police mission to Donbas is a very complex process that requires the consent of all parties. This opinion was expressed to the news agency Obozrevatel by Joint Director of Foreign Policy Programmes and International Security of the Razumkov Centre Mykhailo Pashkov.
The West continues its official and behind-the-scenes pressure to make Kyiv to immediately hold elections in the Donbas. Today the “express elections” in Ukraine’s occupied territories, in fact, is a huge delayed-action bomb, the remote control of which is in the main Kremlin office. Ukraine’s “accession” of the terrorist militarised formations with pseudo-state metastases – controlled by the Kremlin – threatens to turn the whole country into a crisis zone in the center of Europe – a “migration volcano”.
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Policy brief “Almost There: The Carrots of Visa Liberalization as An Impetus for Domestic Reform in Ukraine” tracks reforms implemented by Ukraine as a part of its obligations in Visa Liberalisation Action Plan, explains why they are mutually advantageous both for Ukraine and Germany, considers possible ways for deeper involvement of German NGOs and government to transformations in Ukraine.
The “Europe without Barriers” CO and ”European Pvarda” journalists jointly published an article about the most common misunderstandings of EU visa-free regime perspectives for Ukrainians.
Does it offer employment perspectives in the EU? Do you need to prove you have enough money to travel to the EU? Can you apply for asylum in the European Union? How many documents do you need to provide to enter the Schengen area without a visa? Read more about how long you can stay in the EU without a visa, the list of required documents, employment perspectives (if any), migration threats from Ukraine to the EU, and a financial status of Ukrainian citizens here (in Ukrainian).
Янніс Каррас, Міжнародний грецький університет (Салоніки)
Для того щоб зрозуміти, як греки ставляться до України, треба усвідомити: вони дуже мало знають про Україну.
Загалом Україна завжди була другорядним питанням порядку денного зовнішньої політики Греції, особливо в період з 2010 по 2016 роки. Від початку фінансової кризи за уряду Георгіса Папандреу і до нинішньої кризи вже за правління прем’єр-міністра Алексіса Ципраса грецький народ приділяв увагу лише внутрішнім справам.
Director of Military Programmes of the Razumkov Centre Mykola Sunhurovskyi believes that it is impossible to implement the proposal of the Ukrainian government.
“Such mission is simply not possible. This depends not on Ukraine but on the capabilities of the OSCE itself. They have never conducted such missions, they have no such capabilities, and they have no peacekeeping forces. Such capabilities only Russia has so without it, the OSCE mission is impossible in principle. With Russia’s participation, it is unacceptable for Ukraine as it considers Russia an aggressor,” said the expert.
Ukraine has no state strategy to regain control over the occupied territories of Donbas. This fact is recognized by officials, volunteers and experts. If a military-diplomatic strategy to return Donbas is proposed at the state level, the volunteers recommend focusing on the fight for the residents of the occupied territories.
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