Russia Urges NATO Not To Give Membership To Ukraine

Spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova/Obviously Vladimir Gerdo/TASS

JAKARTA - Russia demanded NATO cancel its promise in 2008 to grant Ukraine membership in the US-led NATO military alliance.

Russia rejects the idea that NATO member forces could be peacekeepers based on a ceasefire agreement.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said talks in Saudi Arabia with Foreign Minister Marco Rubio, US national security adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff were useful. Both parties listen to each other.

But while the meeting was underway, Russia's Foreign Ministry said Moscow's rejection of NATO membership in Ukraine required more than just not to let Ukraine join the alliance for now.

"The refusal to accept Kyiv into NATO is not enough at this time," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in response to a question from Reuters.

The alliance had to break promises at Bucharest in 2008, he said in Moscow.

After having talks with the US delegation in Riyadh, Lavrov told reporters he and Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov insisted NATO membership in Ukraine could not be accepted by Russia.

We explain to our colleagues today what President (Vladimir) Putin has repeatedly emphasized: that NATO's expansion, the absorption of Ukraine by the North Atlantic alliance, is a direct threat to the interests of the Russian Federation, a direct threat to our sovereignty," Lavrov said.

He also rejected British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's proposal to send British troops and possibly other NATO members to Ukraine as peacekeepers, in response to US President Donald Trump's demands that Europe stop relying on the US for its defense needs.

"We are explaining today that the emergence of armed forces from the same NATO countries, but under a fake flag, under the flag of the European Union or under the national flag, has not changed anything in this regard," Lavrov said.

"Of course we can't accept this," he continued.