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Kremlin: Ukraine’s plans to join NATO to force Russia to take countermeasures

The plans which are being declared by the Ukrainian leaders can only be regretful, Kremlin spokesman says

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko (left) and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (right) Nikolay Lazarenko/Ukrainian president's press service/TASS

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko (left) and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (right)

© Nikolay Lazarenko/Ukrainian president's press service/TASS

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MOSCOW, September 22 /TASS/. Ukraine’s plans to join NATO will force Russia to take countermeasures, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned on Tuesday.

"Of course, any expansion of an organization like NATO in the direction of our borders will make it imperative for us to take countermeasures to ensure our own national security," Peskov told TASS.

He said that President Putin had warned about that many times. "The plans which are being declared by the Ukrainian leaders can only be regretful," the Kremlin spokesman went on to say.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told a meeting of the Council for National Security and Defense in Kiev on Tuesday that Ukraine’s cooperation with NATO was strategic. He also said that Ukraine and NATO had never been closer than they were today. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg took part in the meeting.

"Naturally, NATO has never changed and is incapable of changing its intended purpose given the initial goals behind its creation," the Kremlin spokesman said.

"In this case we should remember that this organization was created for the purpose of confrontation and at the time of confrontation," Peskov explained adding that NATO could not change its nature and the main purpose of existence.

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