On Tuesday, the Russian Government asked NATO to denounce its 2008 promise to one day give Ukraine membership of the United States-led military alliance, and for Ukraine to agree to neutrality.
The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova who made this known said NATO membership for Ukraine was unacceptable for Russia but a simple refusal to let it join is also now insufficient for Moscow.
“It is worth noting that a refusal to accept Kyiv into NATO is not enough now. The alliance must disavow the Bucharest promises of 2008.
“Otherwise, this problem will continue to poison the atmosphere on the European continent,” Zakharova said.
According to her, Ukraine needed to return to the position of its 1990 declaration of sovereignty from the Soviet Union, in which Kyiv said that it would become a permanently neutral state, not participate in military blocs and remain nuclear-free.
“What Ukraine needs to do is return to the origins of its own statehood and follow the letter and spirit of the documents,” Zakharova added.
She said neither NATO membership nor Western intervention under the guise of a peacekeeping contingent could give Ukraine such security.
Recalls that at the summit in Bucharest in April 2008, NATO declared that both Ukraine and Georgia would join the US-led defence alliance but gave them no timetable or plan for how to get there.
