(By Tatyana Ivzhenko. Nezavisimaya gazeta, May 24, 2016, p. 1. Complete text:) Ukrainian government has approved its [updated] Strategic Defense Bulletin. It will be officially presented at the July NATO summit in Warsaw. There is no doubt that the alliance will approve the document, since NATO experts were directly involved in drafting this ambitious plan for military reform in Ukraine. Whatever assistance the alliance and its member states provide depends on how successfully Kiev fulfills its commitments. prospect of Ukraine joining NATO is not on ... the table. ... Kiev previously adopted a National Security and Defense Strategy, as well as a Military Doctrine. Both documents outlined a range of threats and how the state would respond. A new element was the acknowledgment of potential aggression from Russia. ... Accordingly, the documents identified the member states of the European Union and NATO as Kiev’s prospective allies. Ukrainian government also set a course for reforms that would enable the country to move closer to the parameters of NATO membership by 2020. ... Strategic Defense Bulletin, which was just adopted by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), states the aims and objectives from last year’s documents in more concrete terms. [Ukrainian] President Pyotr Poroshenko presented the Bulletin at an NSDC session, calling it a road map for defense and security reforms. He commented that the document clearly defines all stages of reform, indicating specific targets and timetables. plan is effectively the start of real restructuring in the defense and security sector, for accession to NATO. This does not mean that a decision on accession is being made. Of course, we are still in the stage of [meeting] our international commitments, but this is the Rubicon that the Ukrainian Armed Forces, along with the [entire] defense and security sector, must cross in order to transition definitively to NATO standards, Poroshenko explained. ... Reforms are expected to begin with the Armed Forces management. Plans call for the Defense Ministry to be reorganized by the end of 2018. At the NSDC meeting, an argument was made for placing the ministry under the supervision of civil society by then. Poroshenko commented in this regard: is a sign of a democratic state.*** After Ukrainian sovereignty is restored over the occupied territories [in the southeast - Trans.], we can eventually consider the issue of appointing a civilian minister of defense. ... General Staff is slated to be reorganized by the end of 2019. This issue, according to Ukrainian sources, was one of the most difficult that came up in the talks with NATO experts. The sources say that the Ukrainian military leadership tried as hard as it could to preserve the advantages it derives from the current system of dual power, where both the defense minister and the chief of the General Staff report directly to the president. NATO representatives insisted that the General Staff gradually move under the authority of the Defense as is common practice in the West. In the end, it was decided that the NATO model would be fully implemented in Ukraine before the end of 2020. ... second set of issues outlined in the Strategic Defense Bulletin relates to efficient defense planning and resource management. third has to do with improving training for the defense forces. fourth concerns a unified logistics system that would meet Western standards. fifth is about transitioning to professional defense forces and creating a professional military reserve. ... Igor Romanenko, ex-deputy chief of the Ukrainian General Staff (2006 - 2010), said in an interview that the Strategic Defense Bulletin is a concrete plan for completely restructuring the entire security sector. The requirements for today’s armed forces are efficiency, mobility and equipment. This is about building, creating, shaping a new system of management and technical logistics. It’s also about power-sharing between governmental authorities. For example, there are serious problems with division of power between the Defense Ministry and the General Staff, especially with a hybrid war going on. It’s also about the more efficient use of financial resources when there’s a chronic deficiency of such resources. This document provides for stronger oversight of what goes on in defense and security agencies, primarily in the Defense Ministry, the expert said. ... document gives projections for Ukraine’s defense budget [from now] to 2020. However, the figures are surprisingly low compared to the scale of the announced reforms. Independent military expert Diana Mikhailova commented in the media: Based on the government-approved forecast for Ukraine’s gross domestic product, the projected funding for defense needs would be 77.2 billion hryvnias in 2017, 86.6 billion in 2018, 95.