JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin assesses Russia's security threat will increase drastically, if Ukraine joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), revealing about the control and control of the country's troops.
Ukraine's joining NATO and the pact's deployment of missiles in Eastern Europe are Moscow's concerns that have sparked a debate with Kyiv. Ukraine is not a member of NATO but has pledged since 2008, to be given the opportunity to join, a move that would bring the US-led alliance to Russia's borders.
"If Russia faces a threat such as the entry of Ukraine into the North Atlantic Alliance, into NATO, then the threat to our country will increase many times," said President Putin and recalled Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty "from which it is clear that all alliance countries must fight on the side of one of its members if one of the Allies is deemed attacked," as quoted from TASS 22 February.
President Putin recalled that Russia was told by several NATO countries against Ukraine becoming a member of the alliance. However, a memorandum had been signed earlier, opening the door for NATO to Ukraine and Georgia.
"There is no answer to my question 'why did you do it?' Under pressure from the US – that's the answer," President Putin concluded.
Furthermore, in a televised address on Monday President Putin said Ukraine would become NATO's foothold to attack Russia, if it joined the alliance.
"I will explain, the US strategic planning document, sets out an option called a preemptive strike on the enemy missile system. And we know who the main enemy of the US and NATO is. That is Russia. The NATO document officially, unequivocally declares Russia as the main threat to the security of the Euro -Atlantic. And Ukraine will be a platform for such attacks," he said.
He noted that, if the ancestors had heard about it, "they wouldn't have believed it."
"And we don't want to believe it either. But it is. I want people in Russia and Ukraine to understand this," said the President.
President Putin further explained that the command and control system of Ukrainian troops has been directly integrated with NATO, with the alliance having begun to exploit Ukrainian territory.
"The command and control system of Ukrainian troops is already integrated with NATO. This means that command of the Ukrainian armed forces, even separate formations and units can be directly implemented from NATO headquarters. The United States and NATO have started shamelessly exploiting Ukrainian territory as a theater of potential military operations, " said President Putin.
"We see how the Kiev regime is constantly being upgraded militarily. The United States alone has funneled billions of dollars for this purpose since 2014, including shipments of weapons, ammunition and specialist training. In recent months, Western weapons have continued to flow into Ukraine in a demonstrative manner such as seen by the whole world," he said.
Not only that, President Putin said the activities of the Ukrainian armed forces and special services were directed by foreign advisers. Assessing the bias of military exercises held by Ukraine with NATO.
"We know very well about that. Military contingents of NATO countries have actually been present constantly on Ukrainian territory under various pretexts in recent years. Regular joint exercises (Ukraine and NATO) have a clear anti-Russian bias," he criticized.
"Last year alone, they involved more than 23,000 troops and 1,000 pieces of equipment. A law has been adopted to admit the armed forces of other countries to Ukrainian territory in 2022 to participate in multinational exercises. It is clear that this mainly involves NATO Forces. This new year no less than 10 such joint maneuvers were planned. It is clear that such an event serves as a cover for NATO's rapid military build-up on Ukrainian territory," said President Putin.
He added that NATO does not care in the slightest about Russia's concerns about its security and will continue to behave in this way. Moscow will never put up with that, according to President Putin.
“Undoubtedly, they are planning to implement this plan. As they have often done in recent years when they expanded NATO to the east and moved their military infrastructure and weapons closer to Russia's borders, completely ignoring our concerns, protests and warnings," he criticized.
President Putin underlined that Russia has every reason to think Ukraine's acceptance of NATO and the alliance's deployment of weapons in the country is a definite issue.
"Following the withdrawal of the United States from the treaty on short and medium-range missiles, the Pentagon is openly developing a wide range of land-based offensive weapons, including ballistic missiles capable of hitting targets at a range of up to 5,500 kilometers. Systems deployed in Ukraine, they will be able to hit targets across the region. Russia in Russia, even across the Ural Mountains," he said.
"The Tomahawk approach time to Moscow is about 35 minutes, a ballistic missile from Kharkov will reach it in 7-8 minutes, and it will take 4-5 minutes for the hypersonic offensive way to do it. It's like a knife in the throat. I have no doubt that they want to. implement this plan," he concluded.
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