Russian diplomacy insisted on Monday that NATO cooperation with Ukraine delays the resolution of the conflict between the two countries and that one of the reasons for the crisis is the West’s contempt for Russian interests.
“The current close cooperation between the Kiev regime and NATO, even without official registration of membership in the organization, does not bring us closer to peace, but rather postpones the resolution of the crisis,” said diplomat Alexei Polishchuk.
The director of affairs for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed, in an interview with the Russian agency TASS, that Ukraine is being exploited by the West.
“Unfortunately, the goal of the West is not the security of Ukraine, but its use as an instrument in the fight against Russia,” he said.
Moscow has accused the West of waging a “proxy war” against Russia through Ukraine.
The current armed conflict between the two neighboring countries began on February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine to “demilitarize and denazify” it.
NATO and other Western allies of Ukraine have been supplying kyiv with weapons to counter the Russian invasion.
Polishchuk told TASS that if the West was concerned about Kiev’s security, the United States of America (USA) and NATO would insist on a neutral status for Ukraine rather than ignore Moscow’s interests.
“Since the 1990s, we have opposed the thoughtless advance of this aggressive military bloc. [NATO] along our borders, we have warned that the security of some countries cannot be guaranteed at the expense of the security of others,” he said.
According to Polishchuk, Moscow proposed several options to solve the problem, “including the creation of a single and indivisible Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian space in terms of security.”
He said that Moscow’s latest proposal was the presentation of draft agreements on security guarantees with the US and NATO, but “the initiative was ignored.”
Since then, “Finland became a NATO member and Sweden is on the way,” and “there is talk of accepting Ukraine, which received that promise in 2007,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the West continues on the path of confrontation, dismantling the existing arms control system and destroying the remnants of the European security architecture,” he added.
NATO (acronym in English for North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was founded in 1949 by 12 countries, including Portugal, as a military defense alliance against the Soviet Union, in the framework of the Cold War.
In reaction, Moscow created the Warsaw Pact in 1955.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact in 1991, NATO expanded eastward, integrating several Soviet bloc countries.
Russia believes that NATO enlargement endangers the country’s security.
Before the invasion almost 16 months ago, Moscow demanded that NATO guarantee that Ukraine and Georgia would never become members of the alliance.
He also called on NATO to withdraw to pre-1997 positions before enlargement to the east.
The Atlantic Alliance rejected both demands.
After the war, Ukraine, Finland and Sweden formally applied to join NATO, which currently has 31 members.
Source: TSF
