THIS MEANS WAR? Russia warns attempt by Ukraine to join NATO will mean end of peace
RUSSIA has warned if the Ukraine joins NATO any attempt at peace in the region could be threatened.
By KATIE MANSFIELD
Express.co.uk
Tue, Jul 11, 2017
Ukraine will begin discussions with NATO on an action plan to get it into the US-led alliance, its president has revealed.
President Petro Poroshenko, whose country is fighting a Kremlin-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine, revived the prospect of NATO membership during a visit by NATO Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg who himself used the occasion to call on Moscow to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.
Russia, deeply opposed to enlargement of NATO toward its borders, weighed in quickly, saying the prospect of NATO membership for Ukraine would not promote stability and security in Europe.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, reacting to Mr Stoltenberg’s comment repeated Russia’s assertion that it had never had troops in Ukraine.
NATO leaders agreed at a summit in 2008 that Ukraine would one day become a member of the alliance.
But there was little popular support for the issue at the time and it was never pursued by Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovich.
Support for NATO membership however has soared since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014, following the fall of Yanukovich, and the outbreak of the war in eastern Ukraine, which has killed more than 10,000 people.
Some 69 percent of Ukrainians want to join NATO, according to a June poll by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, compared to 28 percent support in 2012 when Yanukovich was in power.
Mr Stoltenberg called on Russia to withdraw thousands of troops from Ukraine – forces that Moscow has repeatedly denied sending – and raised concerns about the growing threats to the safety of international teams monitoring the conflict.
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