Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation: “Ukraine will never, never, never become a member of NATO”
The West will be forced to agree to give Russia legal guarantees that Ukraine will not join NATO.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergei Ryabkov announced this today at a press conference in Geneva, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We believe that it is absolutely necessary that Ukraine never, never, never become a member of NATO. At the Madrid NATO summit, we would like the formula adopted at the Bucharest summit in 2008 to be withdrawn and replaced with the following: “Ukraine and Georgia will never become members of the North Atlantic Alliance.”
We are tired of empty conversations, half-promises, misinterpretations, which often happened in negotiations behind closed doors. We don't trust the other side. We need reinforced concrete, legally significant guarantees, not promises, but guarantees, with the words “must”, “obligated”, never to become members of NATO.
There is endless debate about whether countries can change their membership status. Today I spent a long time explaining why it is wrong to elevate such freedom to an absolute. The situation is so dangerous and threatening that we cannot afford to delay in addressing this fundamental issue. As Mr. Putin said, we cannot back down. We have nowhere to retreat further,” Ryabkov said.
He said that Russia has no intention of attacking Ukraine.
“We have no intention of invading Ukraine. There is nothing to bargain about. We do not expect the West to show flexibility on the issues presented. For some reason, the United States has a different view of what needs to be done. Progress is possible if we find some legally binding guarantees of refusal from further NATO expansion,” Ryabkov emphasized.
The diplomat also formulated Russian demands on the Ukrainian authorities.
“I hope that the situation in Ukraine will change in two respects. First, the Kyiv authorities will begin meaningful interaction with people from Donetsk and Lugansk and will work to implement the Minsk agreements. I also hope that they will respect the ceasefire agreement, which was reached a few days before the New Year, but did not last long due to the provocations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Many questions remain to be answered. Including the unacceptable pace of adoption of laws in the Verkhovna Rada concerning the reintegration of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions into Ukraine. If the situation regarding access to Russian-language media improves, then we will be able to note an improvement in the situation. Otherwise, we are talking about its aggravation,” Ryabkov said.
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