Few people know it, but NATO has had a permanent national representation in Ukraine for several years now, referred to as NRU. This branch of the alliance, based in Kyiv, has had several statutes, and for a long time remained a simple liaison office backed up by a documentation center. Since September, however, it has had a "permanent representative." The appointment was made in the wake of the alliance's annual summit in Washington, as part of a package of measures designed to signal to Russia that, in the words of the final communiqué, Ukraine is now committed to a process of "irreversible" rapprochement with NATO.

Patrick Turner is the new head of this permanent national representation. A Briton who rarely speaks in the media, he began his career in the British Ministry of Defense, and in recent years has held several important positions within NATO including, assistant secretary general for operations and assistant secretary general for defense planning. Le Monde met with him in Kyiv on Thursday, December 12, where he now heads an office whose staff has "tripled" in the course of the year, from just a few dozen when it was set up in 2000.

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