At the start of a three-day training session on democratic oversight of the Armed Forces, Deputy Minister of Defence Stanislav Haider voiced this viewpoint in his speech.

The OSCE assists with this training project involving participants from the Ministry of Defence, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Defence University of Ukraine, and civil society organizations.

The project aims to enhance awareness and promote democratic oversight of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in relation to the rights and freedoms of service members, gender equality, interaction with civil society, and honesty.

“The Armed Forces of Ukraine should not be an enclosed structure. This is required by our legislation and by the best practices of our partner countries. Even in the context of a full-scale war, it is important for us to persist in bolstering democratic civilian oversight grounded in openness and transparency. This is a requirement and one of the key tasks of our Euro-Atlantic integration,” said Stanislav Haider.

He mentioned that the project's key expected achievements will encompass, inter alia, the following:

• Assessing the level of democratic oversight of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and formulating suggestions for improvement
  
   

• Monitoring the rights and freedoms of service members in times of martial law 

Stanislav Haider also noted that the Ministry continuously strives to strengthen democratic civilian oversight by reviewing and adjusting its framework and proposing legislative changes in partnership with the Parliament.

Since 2018, there has been continuous cooperation between the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and the OSCE regarding democratic civilian oversight. Throughout this period, four annual projects have been implemented. The current project is scheduled for completion in 2025.