The building of a maritime operations center at the Ochakov Naval Base in Ukraine is still ongoing. It is one of three projects planned to be executed by the US Navy in Ukraine, increasing that country's military collaboration both with the US, and with NATO. CGTN's Aljosa Milenkovic visited Ukraine and brings us more.

 

It's the Ukrainian military band, playing catchy tunes close to the Maidan, Kiev's main city square. Four years ago, this was the place of fearsome street battles that took more than 100 lives. As a result, a regime change has taken place, with Ukraine having a different political course, heading more to the West. The loss of Crimea and the Donbas rebellion came after, and Ukraine's Navy was chased away from its port in Sevastopol. Odessa then became the main base for the remaining ships.

 

ALJOSA MILENKOVIC ODESSA "In Sergey Eisenstein's silent movie masterpiece Battleship Potemkin, it was the haunting images filmed on these very stairs that graphically captured the social turbulences surrounding the origins of the violent changes at the time. Turbulent times have returned to Odessa, but now its another country's ships that could soon be docking at the nearby naval base."

 

And it is the Ochakov naval base, where a joint project with the US Navy is in progress, far from the prying eyes of interested onlookers.

 

OLEG CHUBUK CAPTAIN FIRST CLASS, UKRAINE NAVY "As far as Ukraine recognizes Russia as an aggressor, we are obviously getting prepared to defend from that threat coming from the sea, and to counteract the Russian Navy. We know they did act in aggressive ways in Crimea. Ukrainian ships were blocked and not all of them were finally given back. That's why we are getting prepared to resist forces of the Russian Federation."

 

And help for that preparation comes from NATO. It was not just in the form of conducting joint military training sessions across Ukraine, but also providing 760 million dollars worth of non-lethal military help from NATO countries.

 

SERGIY DZERDZ NATO - UKRAINE CIVIC LEAGUE "Ukrainians want more help from NATO. It's absolutely clear. Ukrainians hope that one day NATO will support us and we'll restore our territory and will save our integrity. But we have what we have."

 

Ukraine aspires to gain NATO membership and that's why it has tried to establish military collaboration with not just member countries, but the organization as a whole. But not everybody in Ukraine supports that pro-NATO direction.

 

ALEKSANDR VILKUL OPPOSITION BLOCK "Ukraine mustn't join any military bloc. Ukraine must become a neutral country. Historically, geo-politically, geographically we are between a couple of very powerful military unions and we have only one exit. It is eternal neutrality. We can and we must become Switzerland of Eastern Europe, and that is our model, or we will have eternal war."

 

Whether Ukraine will become Switzerland of Eastern Europe, or just a new eastern border of NATO depends upon whose option will be more attractive to the already very divided nation. Aljosa Milenkovic, CGTN, Odessa.