(Dan Tri) - Russia believes that simply asking Ukraine not to join NATO at present is not enough.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Photo: TASS).
At a press conference on February 18, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova once again made clear her position that Moscow does not accept Ukraine becoming a member of NATO, the US-led military alliance.
"Ukraine's membership in NATO is unacceptable to us. This poses a serious threat to our security and will lead to catastrophic consequences for the whole of Europe," Maria Zakharova said at a press conference.
However, Ms. Zakharova emphasized that "just refusing to admit Ukraine to NATO at present is not enough".
"It is worth noting that refusing to accept Kiev into NATO today is not enough. NATO must cancel the promises of 2008. Otherwise, this issue will continue to poison the atmosphere on the European continent," Zakharova said.
The statement suggests Moscow may want longer-term assurances that Ukraine will not be allowed to join the military alliance in the future.
Ms. Zakharova believes that Ukraine needs to return to the position of its 1990 sovereignty declaration, opening a new direction from the Soviet Union, in which Kiev declared that it would become a permanently neutral country, not participating in military blocs and without nuclear weapons.
"What Ukraine needs to do is return to the roots of its statehood and adhere to the letter and spirit of the documents. This will be the best guarantee for the country's security," the Russian diplomat stressed.
Neither NATO membership nor Western intervention “under the guise of a peacekeeping force” could provide Ukraine with such security guarantees, she warned.
At the Bucharest summit in April 2008, NATO announced that both Ukraine and Georgia would join the US-led military alliance but gave no specific timeline or plan for achieving that.
The declaration was a compromise intended to bridge the rifts between the United States and France and Germany.
At last year's NATO summit in Washington, NATO reaffirmed that Ukraine was on an "irreversible path" to alliance membership, but continued to offer no timeline.
Russia considers NATO's expansion eastward, closer to its borders, a threat to its national security. Moscow has said it will never accept Ukraine's membership in NATO.
However, Russia has no objection to Ukraine joining the European Union (EU), as long as the relationship is only about economic issues. Pursuing economic interests through regional integration is the "sovereign right" of each country, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has not given up on its ambition to join the military alliance. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week that NATO membership for Ukraine must be one of the topics in any negotiations with Russia to end the conflict.
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-gioi/nga-ra-dieu-kien-moi-cho-ukraine-de-cham-dut-xung-dot-20250218211532343.htm
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