WASHINGTON, December 23. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned his US counterpart, George W. Bush, back in 2008 that Ukraine’s accession to NATO will split Ukrainian society, as follows from declassified US government documents released by the National Security Archive, a public research organization affiliated with George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
During their meeting in Sochi in April 2008, Bush asked the Russian leader why Russia opposes to Ukraine’s NATO membership. "NATO is perceived by a large part of the Ukrainian population as a hostile organization," Putin was quoted as saying by the US National Security Council translators. "What for? What is the meaning of Ukrainian membership in NATO? What benefit is there for NATO and the US? There can be only one reason for it and that would be to cement Ukraine's status as in the Western world and that would be the logic. I don't think it's the right logic. I'm trying to comprehend. And given the divergent views of areas of the population on NATO membership, the country could just split apart."
"I always said there's a certain pro-Western part, and a certain pro-Russia part. Now the power there is held by the pro-Western leaders," Putin explained.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Washington put pressure on other NATO countries, promoting the idea of expanding the alliance to include Ukraine and Georgia. "In 2008, at the summit in Bucharest, they declared that the doors for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO were open," he noted. "Germany, France seemed to be against it, as well as some other European countries. But then, as it turned out later, [US] President [George W.] Bush - and he's such a tough guy, a tough politician - as I was told later, ‘he exerted pressure on us and we had to agree’," Putin said. "And then they say ‘Ukraine won't be in NATO, you know’. I say ‘I don't know. I know you agreed in 2008. Why won't you agree in the future?’ ‘Well, they pressed us then.’ I say, ‘why won't they press you tomorrow and you'll agree again?’ Well. It's nonsensical. Who's there to talk to? I just don't understand. We're ready to talk. But with whom? Where are the guarantees?"
In April 2008, at the Bucharest summit, NATO countries included a written promise to accept Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance (without specifying a time frame) in the final declaration. In February 2019, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, or parliament, adopted amendments to the constitution cementing the country’s striving toward NATO membership. Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly said that that Ukraine wants to join NATO.