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NATO’s decision to grant Kiev new status has political motives, Moscow says

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed that the NATO countries in fact demonstrated they were utterly uninterested in the settlement of the internal Ukrainian conflict

MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/. The political motives of granting Kiev the status of NATO’s enhanced opportunities partner is obvious. By making this decision the alliance encourages the Ukrainian authorities to push ahead with their destructive policies, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on Wednesday.

"Whatever NATO might say about the decision, the political motives are obvious. At a time when Kiev is openly defying the Minsk Accords and continuing the war in Donbass it can be interpreted in no way other than intentional encouragement of the Ukrainian authorities’ destructive policies," she said.

Zakharova stressed that the NATO countries in fact demonstrated they were utterly uninterested in the settlement of the internal Ukrainian conflict. "Otherwise it will be difficult to keep the public at large scared by an alleged Russian threat and build up military muscle on the alliance’s eastern flank," Zakharova said.

On Friday, NATO’s spokesperson Oana Lungescu said in a statement in Brussels that the alliance had granted Ukraine the status of an enhanced opportunities partner. This status gives Ukraine wider access to the alliance’s program for enhancing the military compatibility of armed forces and NATO exercises and expands information exchange opportunities. At the same time the alliance stressed that this status had nothing to do with any decisions regarding NATO membership. Ukraine is a sixth country to have become NATO’s enhanced opportunities partner alongside Georgia, Jordan, Australia, Finland and Sweden.

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Maria Zakharova

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