The Ministry of Defence has launched the Ukraine-NATO Strategic Defence Procurement Review. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine Dmytro Klimenkov during an online speech at a conference dedicated to this process.

The purpose of the review is to help Ukraine reform its defence procurement system and align it with NATO's best practices and standards. The review, championed by Norway and conducted at the request of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, is being led by subject-matter experts from across NATO and Ukraine in close collaboration with NATO’s procurement agency.

The review’s recommendations will promote greater accountability, transparency and interoperability, helping to pave the way for Ukraine’s future membership of the Alliance.

During the conference, Dmytro Klimenkov emphasised that the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine is putting together a new procurement architecture based on NATO standards. "This is one of the main priorities of the new team of the Ministry headed by Rustem Umyerov," he said.

The Ministry of Defence is moving away from the post-Soviet system when several functions were attributed to the Ministry at once. "In the new system, we leave only the function of policy development to the Ministry. Purchases are carried out directly by the Lethal and Non-lethal Defence Acquisition Agencies ", Dmytro Klimenkov added.

The conference held in Luxembourg was also attended by the acting director of the Department of Procurement Policy of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence Hlib Kanievskyi (offline) and the director of the Lethal Defence Acquisition Agency Maryna Bezrukova (online). NATO was represented by Stacy Cummings, General Manager of the NATO Support and Procurement Agency, and Tom Goffus, NATO's Assistant Secretary-General for Operations.

"The priority is zero tolerance for corruption and full provision of the military with everything necessary," said Hlib Kanievskyi. - To improve efficiency, the Ministry of Defence established agency supervisory boards. For example, their responsibilities will include developing an anti-corruption policy."

The Lethal Defence Acquisition Agency has already started selecting a recruiting company that will help select independent members of the agency's supervisory board. "We strive to attract professional managers to the supervisory board, who will help ensure high corporate management standards in defence procurement," Maryna Bezrukova assured.

 The conference is the beginning of the first stage of the Review. It provides for the creation of working groups to develop a set of policy recommendations to be approved at the Washington NATO summit in July.