Russia has called on NATO to abandon the promise made in 2008 that Ukraine would one day become a member of the US-led military alliance. This was stated by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, quoted by Reuters, reports BTA.
Moscow categorically does not accept the idea of Ukraine's membership in NATO, but according to Zakharova, the refusal to accept Kiev into the alliance is not enough.
„It should be emphasized that simply not accepting Ukraine into NATO is not enough. The alliance must completely abandon the promises made at the 2008 Bucharest summit,“ she said.
In April 2008, at the summit in the Romanian capital, NATO leaders announced that Ukraine and Georgia would join the alliance in the future, but without providing a specific plan or timetable for this.
In addition, Zakharova commented that Moscow appreciates the intention of the new US administration to discuss problems in bilateral relations and work to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.
“We see the US administration's desire for serious discussions on a number of accumulated problems in Russian-American relations, as well as on international issues, including the situation in Ukraine,“ she added.