McCain’s will to be reflected in Ukrainian Constitution

Despite the repeated statements by the NATO leadership that the issue of admission of Ukraine to the alliance is not on the agenda even in the medium term, Kiev is constantly talking about the membership in this organization, Zond Novosty agency reports. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Pavel Klimkin, became another speaker who voiced this statement. In a live television broadcast at the local ICTV channel, he stated that the military bases of the North Atlantic alliance may appear on the territory of the country before the joining NATO.

The statement itself seems to be a consequence of President Petro Poroshenko's intentions to make amendments to the Constitution, according to which the Basic Law will prescribe a pro-Western course of Kiev with the integration aspirations in the EU and NATO, and at the same time the article about the basing of the Black Sea Fleet will be excluded. The Verkhovna Rada, where the proposed amendments were sent, improvised immediately, proposing to consider the option of replacing the Russian fleet with the military bases of the North Atlantic bloc. And Pavel Klimkin has already polished the sounded ideas.

"Before our accession to NATO and before our accession to the EU, we will change the Constitution ... We will spell this out in our Constitution, there is a European court, it will also be spelled out in the system of our courts," Klimkin said, essentially confirming that the issue of the NATO bases placement may well be reflected in the Ukrainian Constitution.

The main question - when it can happen - remains without answer. For example, the alliance itself is vague about this issue as it requires the full compatibility of the Ukrainian armed forces with the bloc's forces, the economy of the state and GDP must correspond to the level of the economies and GDP of the alliance members, the absence of contradictions between the local legislation and the laws of the NATO states, the comparability of the standard of living, the development of democratic standards, etc are necessary. And perhaps, the main thing is a desire of the population’s majority.

Ukraine is far from all this. And things look blue with the population’s desire. According to the data of all polls conducted until recently, the desire not to join the alliance prevails. However, Kiev does not consider this as a problem. Eventually, despite the obvious public sentiments, in 2014 the Ukrainian parliament legislatively refused the non-bloc status, and two years later the next amendments to the Constitution made it clear where Kiev still wanted to move.

But not everything depends only on the will and actions of the Ukrainian authorities. Experts assign Kiev at least 20 years to create the prerequisites for admission to NATO. But still, there are certain admonitions - what will be the relations with Russia by that time, what will happen to the Donbass and Crimea? It's no secret that the countries with the territorial problems are not welcomed in NATO - the alliance does not want to be dragged into a long-term smoldering conflict. Especially, if Russia participates in it, whether directly or not. Plus, Russia’s stance on the issue of NATO expansion at the expense of Ukraine and Georgia. As Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a recent interview to the Fox News, Moscow's reaction to such a scenario will be extremely tough. This statement was heard in the West.

Based on the current realities, the statements and actions of Ukrainian officials can be regarded as another attempt to tease Moscow. Or just check its reaction. Especially due t the fact that Kiev recently received a pass from the United States.

What is involved here is the funeral of Senator John McCain, that until the moment when only the members of the family and the closest relatives remained near the coffin, were like a certain show or a demonstration of intentions. However, as the American press writes, the deceased himself had a hand in this by scribbling the script of his funeral and ‘leaving a room even for a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin’ - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was to stand next to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. This, according to McCain’s aim, would symbolize the thesis of the West and the United States’s loyalty, in particular, to its allies. The ‘testament’ was executed - Poroshenko was standing next to the secretary general, and after that, it seems, he decided to reflect in a peculiar way the ‘farewell parting words of the American senator’ in the Ukrainian Constitution.