The Kremlin admitted on Thursday that one of the objectives of its invasion of Ukraine was to prevent the country from joining NATO, on the same day Atlantic Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was in Kiev.
The main spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed that a priority objective of his regime is to keep Kiev away from NATO.
“Otherwise it would pose a serious threat to our country, to our security,” Peskov argued, quoted by the Interfax news agency.
The Kremlin does not recognize the prospect of a hypothetical future accession of Ukraine to NATO – a hypothesis that is not officially raised for the time being.
Yet Kiev asked Alliance member states for political and military assistance, claiming that member states’ security was also at risk.
Stoltenberg arrived in Ukraine on Thursday for a surprise visit, the first visit by the organization’s top official.
And yet NATO avoided taking photos of the Secretary General with Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, precisely because of the possible implications of that photo in the context of the war.
Source: DN
