MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/. NATO members delivered weapons to Ukraine, trained Ukrainian soldiers and held exercises on its territory, de-facto turning the country into its anti-Russian foothold, Alexey Polishchuk, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s second department of the CIS countries, said in an interview with TASS.
"NATO countries pumped Ukraine with weapons, trained Ukrainian military, held exercises there. Since 2014, Washington’s military aid to Ukraine totaled $2.7 billion. In fact, the territory of Ukraine was being transformed into NATO’s anti-Russian foothold," he said. "We expressed our concerns many times, put forward proposals about providing us with legal guarantees of our security and confirming the principle of indivisible security. However, they were, in fact, ignored," he said.
According to the official, the reasons behind Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine are well-known.
"The decision to begin it was a reaction to Kiev’s aggressive conduct in Donbass, which intensified in February and caused a mass exodus of refugees to our territory," he said.
"The situation started to deteriorate since the start of the year. Figures registered by OSCE observers were record-high: 15,000 ceasefire violations, including 7,000 blasts. And not every incident is registered by OSCE," the diplomat continued. "By late February, serious Ukrainian forces gathered near Donbass, shelling incidents and tensions peaked, refugees started to arrive. There was nothing else we could do but react. Kiev’s plans to obtain nuclear weapons, voiced during the Munich Conference, were the last drop."
Polishchuk explained that Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine is conducted in accordance with the UN Charter.
"The special military operation was a forced measure. It is being conducted on absolutely legitimate grounds: following a request from the DPR and LPR, in accordance with Article 51 Part 7 of the UN Charter. And it was authorized by the Federation Council [the Russian parliament’s upper chamber]," he said.
The Russian diplomat added that the deployment of NATO bases in Ukraine or its accession to NATO was totally unacceptable for Moscow.
"Ukraine’s admittance to NATO and deployment of NATO weaponry and bases on its territory is absolutely unacceptable. This is what we mean by demilitarization," he said. "We need to rule out the presence of certain types and amounts of weapons on the territory of Ukraine, which pose a threat to Russia’s security."
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to the appeal of the leaders of the republics of Donbass, decided to conduct a special military operation. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow’s plans do not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories. After that, the US, EU, and UK, as well as several other states, announced that they were imposing sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities.