The Defense Education Enhancement Program (DEEP) is a NATO initiative dating back ten years. It aims at fostering intellectual operability and officer professional military education (PME) to render NATO Partners and potential members capable of joining forces with NATO nations if need be, and to develop the practices and methods to ensure their own security. The Ukraine portion of the program is the most significant. Administered by NATO and the Partnership for Peace Consortium, overseen by strong American and Polish interests, it is a manifestation of what the Alliance can do as a measure of assistance and reassurance to Ukraine. The DEEP is a tool to demonstrate NATO’s credibility and deterrence potential outside of Art. 5. This article speaks of the absorption challenges created by the multiplicity of events, and argues that the objective of creating self-sufficient and interoperable forces is impeded by the current conflict in the Donbas.