MOSCOW, January 30./TASS/. Ukraine is not ready to be a NATO member country, it will bring nothing useful to the Alliance, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in the Voskresny Vecher (Sunday Evening) program on Channel One.
"It turns out each time that the line they are supposed to defend is moving further east. Now, it has already come close to Ukraine. They want to also pull this country into there. Thought it is clear to everyone that Ukraine is not ready and it won’t make any contribution whatsoever to the strengthening of NATO’s security," the foreign minister said.
Ukraine’s NATO membership will seriously affect Russia-NATO relations, he said. "This will really undermine relations with the Russian Federation as it will be a gross violation of obligations taken by the presidents of the US and other member states of the alliance," Lavrov said. "Let them console themselves with saying that it is ‘defensive’. It does not make things easier for us. The line of defense has already come close to us," the top diplomat stressed.
Ukraine’s membership in NATO
Ukraine’s membership in NATO will undermine the alliance’s relations with Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
"This will really undermine relations with the Russian Federation as it will be a gross violation of obligations taken by the presidents of the US and other member states of the alliance," Lavrov said.
Requests to NATO and the OSCE
Russia is sending requests to NATO and the OSCE, asking to explain whether they intend to comply with the key security commitments, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told.
"Today, we are sending an official request to our colleagues in the countries of the Alliance and the OSCE via the Foreign Ministry with a pressing request to explain how they intend to fulfil the commitment not to strengthen their security at the expense of security of the others," he said. "If they don’t plan this, then they should explain why. This will be the key question in determining our further proposals that we will report to Russian President Vladimir Putin," Lavrov added.
On December 17, 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry published draft agreements between Moscow and Washington on security guarantees and measures for ensuring the security of Russia and NATO member states. The proposed measures include guarantees that NATO will not advance eastward, and not grant membership to Ukraine and other countries into the alliance, along with the non-deployment of serious offensive weapons, including nuclear ones.
On January 26, the US and NATO handed over written responses to Russia on Moscow’s security guarantees that it was demanding from Washington and Brussels. On Thursday, Lavrov said that US responses contained no positive reaction to the main issue - inadmissibility of NATO’s further expansion.