PARIS, March 11. /TASS/. The West made a mistake by promising Ukraine NATO membership, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said in an interview with LCI TV channel.

"There are moments in which we could have reacted better. For example, we proposed things that we could not guarantee, in particular Ukraine's accession to NATO. This was never realized. I think it was a mistake to make promises that we could not fulfill," he said.

The head of European diplomacy also admitted that the West had made mistakes when building relations with Russia. "Thus, we lost the opportunity to bring Russia closer to the West in order to deter it," he said.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help from the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aims to "demilitarize and denazify" the country. Later he stated that one of Moscow's key demands was that Ukraine remain neutral. As Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Sergey Naryshkin had earlier stated, it is critical for Russia because it is the "minimum territorial barrier" the country needs to repel attacks from the West.