Ukraine efforts to join NATO threaten Europe: Russia
Iran Press TV
Thu Dec 25, 2014 8:45PM GMT
Russia has warned that Ukraine's attempts to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) threaten Europe's security.
"The very idea of Ukraine's efforts to join NATO are [sic] dangerous, not only for Ukrainian people, because there is no unity over that issue, it is dangerous for European security," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.
"There are a few Western countries that want to maintain the crisis in Ukraine and to maintain and boost the confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, including through provocative efforts toward membership in the Atlantic alliance," he added, in reference to NATO.
On December 23, Ukraine's parliament voted to drop the country's non-aligned status, which prohibited the country from joining military alliances, by voting for a bill that would allow Ukrainian membership in NATO. The bill had been submitted by President Petro Poroshenko, who has promised to hold a referendum on membership in the Western military alliance.
Russia has repeatedly voiced its opposition to Ukraine's membership in NATO, saying such a measure would only aggravate regional tensions.
Relations between Russia and the West were strained in March following a decision by Ukraine's then autonomous region of Crimea to join the Russian Federation.
Tensions aggravated after Ukraine launched military operations in mid-April to silence pro-Russia protests in the country's east.
Kiev and the West accuse Russia of destabilizing Ukraine and have imposed sanctions against Russian and pro-Russia figures. Moscow, however, rejects the accusation.
Amid the crisis in Ukraine, NATO has held a number of war games in Eastern Europe and reinforced its air patrol over the Baltic region recently. Moscow has repeatedly denounced such moves as a sign of aggression.
IA/HJL/SS
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