On 25 June 2009, an official ceremony will be held at the Ukrainian National Defence University to mark the handover of the Peacekeeping English Project (PEP), which has been funded by the UK Government and implemented in Ukraine for over ten years, from the United Kingdom to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.

The main goal of the Peacekeeping English Project has been to assist the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence (MoD) in developing an effective and sustainable system of English language training (ELT) in the armed forces to improve their contribution to international and regional peace support operations, security initiatives and humanitarian relief efforts, to enable them to participate in international training activities and to help Ukraine play a more active role in general on the international stage.

Central to all the project's activities in Ukraine has been the goal of the project’s sustainability. Due to the success of PEP's work and the commitment of its Ukrainian partners, the project can now be handed over to and continued by the MoD.

The handover ceremony will be attended by the UK Ambassador Leigh Turner, the UK Defence Attaché, Captain John Foreman Royal Navy, the British Council Director, Ms Margaret Jack and the Peacekeeping English Project Manager, Mr Ben Gray. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence will be represented by Mr Valery Ivashenko, the Acting Minister of Defence, Army General Radetsky, Commandant of the Ukrainian National Defence University, and representatives of the Ukrainian General Staff.

Before the ceremony the UK Ambassador Leigh Turner said:

"Peacekeeping English has been one of the many important and successful UK-Ukraine partnership projects and I am proud of its achievements and the benefits it has delivered for international peacekeeping as well as for thousands of individuals doing important things often in difficult circumstances"

The results of PEP’s work can be seen in the increasingly valuable contribution Ukraine’s armed forces are making to international peacekeeping. Since 2003 the project has helped to train over 5,000 officers who have gone on to serve on a range of peace support operations in locations such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia and Sudan, and for many of these English language skills have proved vital and, in some cases, even life-saving.

Captain Sergey Djim studied English at Kharkiv Air Force University before being deployed as a helicopter pilot in Liberia. He says “On one occasion I had to carry out an emergency evacuation at a remote landing site. The weather conditions were poor and the landing site small and surrounded by jungle so I had to rely on the Pakistani peacekeepers based on the ground to guide me into land. To do this they used English. Because I could follow their instructions I landed safely and was able to collect a seriously injured officer and transport him to hospital”.

Esther Hay, the Peacekeeping English Global Project Manager described Ukraine project as an “excellent example of an effective and sustainable system of teacher development” and a “model of best practice for UK funded educational projects”.

The end of this project is not the end of UK-Ukraine co-operation in the sector. UK will continue to work bilaterally and through NATO to assist Ukraine in developing its peacekeeping capabilities and the reform of its wider security sector.   The UK remains a strong supporter of Ukraine’s aspirations to join the Euro-Atlantic family.

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