Russia mulls insisting NATO to officially reject Ukraine's membership to bloc

Konstantin Gavrilov, the leader of the Russian delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, stated that Moscow will be insisting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to officially express its refusal to accept Ukraine into the bloc. He further stated that Kyiv, in turn, will also have to honour the commitment it made in 1990. "Kyiv must proclaim its neutral, non-bloc position, as stipulated in the provisions of the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine on 16 July 1990," Gavrilov stated during an Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) forum on security, Sputnik reported. 

In a majority decision by the federal parliament in February 2019, Kyiv enshrined its policy of joining the European Union (EU) and NATO in the Ukrainian Constitution, breaking a long-standing commitment to remaining neutral and refusing to join any military alliances. The decision was made under the leadership of a new generation of Ukrainian lawmakers who came to power in 2014 after a Western-backed coup. Meanwhile, Russia has consistently urged NATO to curtail its "mindless" eastward expansion, urging it to honour agreements made in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Russia urges NATO to stop its expansion in Eastern Europe

Following the escalation of tensions around Ukraine, Russia's Foreign Ministry had presented draft proposals on security guarantees between Moscow, the United States, and the NATO nations in Europe. The proposals, presented in December last year, seek to restrict NATO from expanding in eastern Europe. Among several other terms, it also called for prohibiting the US and Russia from placing intermediate and shorter-range missiles within striking distance of each other's territory. 

US, NATO reject key provisions of Russia's security proposals

However, the US and NATO rejected the proposals' key provisions, particularly the demand that Ukraine be denied membership in the alliance. Despite Moscow's concerns that NATO forces in neighbouring Ukraine would pose a clear security danger, the US and NATO persisted in preserving their "open-door" policy. Despite their refusal to accept the key proposals, the West agreed to begin discussions on the secondary aspects, such as new European arms control regimes and mutual reductions in the size of military drills on each other's borders, Sputnik reported. 

Image: AP