President orders government to abandon Ukraine’s non-aligned status – decree

Thursday, September 25, 2014 - 10:19 (EEST) Section: Latest news

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a decree on “urgent measures” to protect Ukraine and strengthen its defense capability.
The text of the decree was published on the official website of the head of state on September 24.
According to the report, the decree was passed in connection with the further worsening of the situation in the area of national security as a result of Russian armed aggression.
The goal of these measures is to neutralize current threats to Ukraine’s national security.
First of all, the decree defines as a priority in Ukraine’s national interests in the sphere of foreign policy activity in 2014 and subsequent years the further development of Ukraine’s strategic partnership with the United States, the EU and NATO.
Many of the key points in the decree are classified as “secret.”
The decree instructs the Cabinet of Ministers to urgently prepare and send to the Ukrainian president for further submission to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine a bill on rejecting Ukraine’s non-aligned status, to draft general directives for negotiations with Russia, to transfer the national economy to functioning amid a special period, to put forward proposals regarding the use of special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) against Russia, to ensure the temporary closure of checkpoints on Ukraine’s state border with Russia for automotive, marine and pedestrian traffic and the suspension of movement, to exempt from taxes defense and security products that are imported into Ukraine, to increase the salaries of military personnel, and to provide with housing the families of servicemen killed or wounded in the area of the anti-terrorist operation.
The decree instructs the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to immediately appeal to NATO in the manner specified by the Charter on a Distinctive Partnership between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, requesting the immediate convocation of a North Atlantic Council meeting and the holding of consultations, to appeal to the states parties of the Memorandum on Security Assurances in connection with Ukraine’s accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to hold urgent consultations, and to appeal to the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom with the request to provide military assistance to Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry should urgently provide the Ukroboronprom State Concern, in the interests of the development of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, with the possibilities of Ukraine’s cooperation with NATO, exclude the involvement of conscripts in hostilities in the anti-terrorist operation, and create an aviation medical unit.