MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/. Ukraine joining NATO and the deployment of foreign military bases on this country’s territory are unacceptable both for Russia and Europe since it will undermine the security system in Europe that has been shaped for decades and will force Russia to deflect the unacceptable nature of this threat, Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin told the Russia-24 TV channel on Tuesday.
"Ukraine joining NATO will have an entire set of consequences that are of an absolutely unacceptable and inadmissible nature for us. Not only for us but for European security in general. The entire architecture of European security which has been created for several decades, about forty years, beginning with the Helsinki Final Act, will be destroyed. We will literally find ourselves in a situation similar to the Cold War in the 60s," he noted.
The deployment of strike weapons and medium-and short-range missiles near Russia’s borders as well as the emergence of military bases "will create an unacceptable threat that Russia will have to deflect with a lot of effort, with major economic expenditures," the diplomat said. "We absolutely don’t need this," he concluded.
Among the consequences, the envoy also mentioned the unchallenged continuation of anti-Russian policy by nationalists in Ukraine under the cover of NATO policy.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and his US counterpart Joe Biden, in a phone conversation, discussed the process of the peaceful settlement in Donbass as well as the US aid in case of aggression against Ukraine, sanctions against Russia, and Ukraine’s membership in NATO.
Currently, Ukraine has the status of NATO’s Enhanced Opportunities Partner. At the same time, the alliance has not yet presented Kiev with the Membership Action Plan (MAP), given that this is a first step in the legal procedure of joining the organization. The political statement that Ukraine would become a NATO member was eventually approved by the alliance at a summit in Bucharest back in April 2008. In February 2019, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada approved constitutional amendments enshrining Kiev’s aspiration to join NATO.