Maria Shustrova
Former adviser to fo-rmer Ukrainian P-resident Viktor Yus-hchenko, Valeriy Ivasyuk, said that NATO would sooner cease to exist than Ukraine would join the alliance. He also wondered why the country’s constitution had fixed the course of joining the North Atlantic Alliance.
“Rather, NATO will cease to exist”
“I am deeply convinced that as long as Russia will exist in the formula, the format in which it now exists, NATO will sooner cease to exist than Ukraine will be a member of the Alliance, this is true,” Ivasyuk said on the air of the NASH TV channel.
He also wondered why the course of joining the North Atlantic Alliance was fixed in the constitution of Ukraine. The expert is convinced that this provision has one function – a warning.
“This function is one, and it is very important – so that God forbid, no coming power, the president or the Verkhovna Rada would be tempted to turn to the East,” the ex-presidential adviser explained.
One of the obstacles on Ukraine’s path to NATO membership was the non-aligned status of the state, enshrined in the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine in 1990. Then the Ukrainian SSR proclaimed “its intention to become in the future a permanently neutral state that does not participate in military blocs.”
In December 2014, Petro Poroshenko introduced to the Verkhovna Rada a bill on the abolition of the non-aligned status of Ukraine, which was approved by the parliament. Already in 2019, a law came into force on fixing the course in the EU and NATO in the country’s constitution.
“Impudent deception”
On December 23, during a big press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the NATO member countries “blatantly deceived” Russia.
“The question of security. It is not the course of negotiations that is important, the result is important. Not a single inch to the east, we were told in the 90s. And what? Na-doo-li. They just blatantly deceived, ”said the leader of the country.
According to him, there have already been “five waves of NATO expansion.” “We are not threatening someone. Have we come to the US borders? Or to the borders of the UK? They came to us, ”he stressed.
Political analyst Igor Shatrov explained on Sputnik radio that NATO had promised Gorbachev not to expand. “Yes, orally, but they (promises – Gazeta.Ru) were given. But what we saw contradicts these promises, ”the expert emphasized.
Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance Jens Stoltenberg gave an interview to the dpa agency, in which he did not agree with the arguments of the Russian head of state.
“Even in the founding agreement of our organization it is written that every European state can become a member of the alliance… This is the fundamental principle of European security, to which Russia has signed. We cannot change this with a few quotes. In addition, the allies deny that such promises were ever made, ”said the NATO Secretary General.
“Red lines”
The expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance to the east and the deployment of offensive weapons on the territory of Ukraine are the “red lines” for Moscow. The President of Russia has repeatedly stated this.
“I want everyone to understand, both in our country and abroad, our partners understood that it’s not even the line that we don’t want anyone to cross. The fact is that we have nowhere to go. They pushed us so closely to such a line, sorry for bad manners, that we have nowhere to move on, ”Putin said on December 26 in an interview with the Russia 1 TV channel.
According to him, this is precisely why in mid-December the Russian Foreign Ministry published two draft treaties on security guarantees – with the United States and NATO member states.
“Yes, this may not be the usual way to conduct a discussion. But we have fears that… any of our proposals will be used in order to fill it with destructive work of creating threats for us in our neighboring countries, on their territory, “the leader of the country noted.
Security guarantees
In the treaties sent to the United States and the North Atlantic Alliance, the Russian Federation demands that Ukraine or other post-Soviet countries abandon the further expansion of NATO and join the alliance.
In addition, the Russian side offered NATO not to deploy additional military contingents and weapons outside the countries in which they were in May 1997 (before the accession of Eastern European countries to NATO), except in exceptional cases with the consent of Russia and the members of the alliance.
Among other things, Russia expects from the United States a commitment not to deploy weapons and forces in areas where this will be perceived by the other side as a threat to national security. Also in the draft treaty, the United States proposed to undertake obligations not to create military bases in post-Soviet countries, not to use their military infrastructure and not to develop military cooperation with them.
On December 23, during a large press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia “immediately” needed security guarantees. “What is incomprehensible here? Are we placing missiles near the US borders? No, it was the USA with their missiles that came to our house, they are already on the threshold of our house. Is this some kind of excessive requirement – not to put any shock systems at our house? What is unusual here? ” – Putin said then.
Negotiations on the documents proposed by the Russian side will begin on January 10 in Geneva.
