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Russian diplomat slams NATO for ratcheting up tensions in Ukraine

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the aim of the NATO officials’ visit was "to encourage Kiev’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations in the spirit of the 2008 Bucharest NATO summit"

© AP Photo/Virginia Mayo

MOSCOW, November 1. /TASS/. NATO’s military support for Kiev has had a destabilizing effect on Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said commenting on the North Atlantic Council’s visit to Ukraine.

"The alliance continues to behave destructively, working towards escalation [of the situation] rather than reconciliation. Its moves contribute to ratcheting up tensions, by, among other things, promising Ukrainians that ‘NATO will always side with you.’ The destabilizing and instigating effect of NATO’s military support for Kiev on the situation in Ukraine is obvious," she noted.

According to the diplomat, the aim of the NATO officials’ visit was "to encourage Kiev’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations in the spirit of the 2008 Bucharest NATO summit." "However, NATO cannot solve the existing Ukrainian problems, including the ones related to national reconciliation, the fight against corruption, the stabilization of the situation in the east," she went on to say. "Quite on the contrary, taking into account the historical experience of the alliance’s expansion and its ‘humanitarian interventions,’ calls to Kiev to rush into Euro-Atlantic ‘arms’ provoke the breakup of the country, deepen new dividing lines in Europe and contribute to the growth of interethnic and other tensions."

Zakharova also pointed to attempts to portray the intra-Ukrainian conflict as the conflict with Russia. "Efforts made within the Contact Group, which plays a core role in finding ways of implementing the Minsk Package of Measures on the basis of the dialogue with the authorities of Donetsk and Lugansk, have been ignored," she stated.

"As for the possibility of doing ‘business as usual’ with our country, of course, this is impossible as long as NATO is guided by the Cold War logic in its policy and military buildup, including by whipping up hysteria about the non-existent threat from the east," Zakharova stressed.

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