Russia Reaffirms Ukraine's NATO Membership Is A Threat

New Ukrainian military illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Ministry of Defense of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Russia on Thursday reiterated that the membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for Ukraine is a threat and unacceptable.

Russia is known to have repeatedly opposed the expansion of NATO membership and opposed joining Ukraine in the US-led military alliance.

"For us, the threat is still an expansion of NATO," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow, launching TASS November 28.

"NATO's desire to pull Ukraine into orbit remains a threat to us," he continued.

"The country's membership in the aggressive military alliance that has declared Russia its target, calls it a security threat in all operational environments, unacceptable to us," Zakharova said.

One of President Vladimir Putin's main conditions for ending the war in Ukraine is the demand that Western leaders promise that Ukraine will not become a NATO member. Reuters reported.

At the 2008 Bucharest Summit, NATO leaders agreed Ukraine and Georgia would one day become members. Ukraine in 2019 amended its constitution committed to the full membership path of NATO and the European Union.

Later, President Donald Trump said the US support for Ukraine's efforts to become a member of NATO was the cause of the war, and had indicated that Ukraine would not get membership.

In the text of the US-proposed 28-point peace plan for Ukraine, the 7th point states: "Ukraine agrees to perpetuate in its constitution that Ukraine will not join NATO, and NATO agrees to include in the Statanya the provision that Ukraine will not be accepted in the future."