Category Archives: NATO

22 23 12 2014 Ukrainian crisis news War in Ukraine Russia NATO Crimea Catalonia
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22 23 12 2014 Ukrainian crisis news War in Ukraine Russia NATO Crimea Catalonia - Video

Russia: NATO pushed Ukraine to shelve non-aligned status
Russia has accused NATO members of pushing Ukraine to drop its non-aligned status and work toward membership in the military alliance. Russia #39;s deputy defense minister said Ukraine was pushed...

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Russia: NATO pushed Ukraine to shelve non-aligned status - Video

Russia says NATO turning Ukraine into #39;frontline of confrontation #39;
Russia says NATO turning Ukraine into #39;frontline of confrontation #39;

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Russia says NATO turning Ukraine into 'frontline of confrontation' - Video

Top Russian security officials Wednesday accused NATO of pressuring Ukraine to drop its post-Soviet nonaligned status and warned that Moscow's relations with the Western alliance would be damaged beyond repair if it extends membership to the longtime Kremlin ally.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made clear with his seizure of Ukraine's Crimea region and his support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine that he regards Kiev's political turn toward the European Union and NATO as a threat to Russia's regional security.

Lawmakers in Kiev on Tuesday voted to end Ukraine's nonaligned status, a posture the westernmost former Soviet republic adopted after the communist federation's breakup in 1991. At that time Ukraine was seeking to calm fears in Moscow that the geographically strategic republic where Russia's Black Sea fleet is based wouldn't drift into the West's sphere of influence.

Ukraine's Supreme Council voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to drop the nonaligned commitment as an initial step toward eventual membership in NATO. The 28-nation defense bloc already includes the three former Soviet Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as all Eastern European states once tethered to Moscow under the Warsaw Pact military alliance.

NATO membership for Ukraine is years away at best, as the country must first conduct sweeping reforms of its armed forces to meet alliance "interoperability" requirements, as well as resolve the armed conflict that broke out in eastern Ukraine after Russia annexed Crimea in March. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said his economically constrained country cannot reasonably expect to be in shape for NATO accession before 2020.

Still, Russian officials have reacted angrily to the renunciation of nonalignment and warned of dire consequences should Ukraine join NATO.

"Under the slogan of Russian threat, NATO is building its military potential in the Baltic states, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania," Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told news agencies in Russia.

If Ukraine joins NATO, "we will have a complete collapse with NATO, which will be practically impossible to rebuild," Antonov said, according to the Sputnik news site.

"NATO countries prompted Ukraine to take a counterproductive decision while trying to turn Ukraine into a forward line of confrontation with Russia, Antonov was quoted as saying by the Tass news agency.

Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also lashed out at Ukraine and NATO over the nonaligned status change, calling it "counterproductive as it only enhances the confrontation by creating an illusion that the adoption of such laws can resolve the deep internal state crisis in Ukraine."

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Russia blames NATO for Ukraine abandoning nonaligned status

Russia will cut off cooperation with NATO if Ukraine joins the Western military alliance a move that will be practically impossible to repair,"the deputy defense minister warned Wednesday. Moscow has been outraged since Kiev announced its renunciation of neutral status Tuesday a possible step toward joining NATO.

"NATO countries pushed Kiev to this counterproductive decision, trying to turn Ukraine into a front line of confrontation with Russia," Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told the Russian news agency Interfax. "If this decision in the future takes on a military character [accession to NATO], then we will respond appropriately. Then there will be a complete severing of ties with NATO, which will be practically impossible to repair."

Kiev first announced its interest in joining NATO in August following months of fighting Russian-backed separatist rebels in the eastern provinces. Kiev has accused Russia of arming the separatists after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was sympathetic to Moscow, was overthrown. Russia has denied the claims.

On Tuesday, Ukraines parliament voted to drop the country's non-aligned status in a 303-8 vote and take steps to align itself formally with the West.

"This will lead to integration in the European and the Euro-Atlantic space," Ukraine Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimki said.

While NATO membership for Ukraine is years away and is no certainty Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev took to Facebook on Monday warning that in essence, an application for NATO membership will turn Ukraine into a potential military opponent for Russia.

A NATO official, who asked not to remain anonymous, told Reuters that the military alliance would review Ukraines candidacy if the country applies.

"Should Ukraine decide to apply for NATO membership, NATO will assess its readiness to join the alliance in the same way as with any candidate. This is an issue between NATO and the individual countries aspiring to membership," the official said.

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Russia Irate At Ukraines Steps Towards NATO, Calls Vote Counterproductive

MOSCOW: Russia said today that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was turning Ukraine into a "frontline of confrontation" and threatened to sever remaining ties with the Atlantic military alliance if Ukraine's hopes of joining it were realised.

The Kiev Parliament's renunciation of Ukraine's neutral status on Tuesday in pursuit of NATO membership has outraged Moscow and deepened the worst confrontation between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.

"NATO countries pushed Kiev to this counterproductive decision, trying to turn Ukraine into a front line of confrontation with Russia," Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov told the Russian news agency Interfax.

It is likely to take years for Ukraine to meet the technical criteria for accession to the NATO and, even then, there is no certainty that the alliance is ready to take such a political hot potato. Yet Russia has made clear that it would see the NATO membership of such a strategic former Soviet republic with a long common border as a direct military threat.

NATO has already boosted its military presence in eastern Europe in 2014, saying it has evidence that Russia orchestrated and armed a pro-Russian rebellion in eastern Ukraine that followed the overthrow of a Kremlin-backed president in Kiev.

Moscow denies supporting the rebellion, and is currently trying, along with Kiev and the rebels, to renew efforts to find a political solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine. A so-called "contact group" is expected to meet in Minsk today to try to reinforce a shaky ceasefire and de-escalate the conflict, in which more than 4,700 people have been killed.

A truce agreed in September has been regularly flouted by both sides, but violence has lessened significantly in December. The rebellion began shortly after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in March.

Thomson Reuters 2014

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NATO Turning Ukraine Into 'Frontline of Confrontation': Russia

Washington The Ukraine parliaments vote Tuesday to nullify the countrys non-aligned status is largely a symbolic gesture and does not mean Ukraine will seek NATO membership any time soon.

What the vote does promise is further ratcheting up of tensions between Ukraine and Russia, and between Western leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin who considers Ukraine an inseparable piece of Russias backyard, and Ukrainian membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization a red line.

The vote represents one step toward fulfilling all criteria of membership in the North Atlantic Alliance.Perhaps the biggest impact of the vote will be to stir up waters that had begun to calm concerning embattled eastern Ukraine, some Russia analysts say. The vote came just hours after new talks were announced for this week aimed at ending Ukraines conflict with pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.

The real question is, why did this vote happen now, when the situation in eastern Ukraine is relatively calm? says Paul Saunders, director of the US-Russian relations program at the Center for the National Interest in Washington.

The Ukrainian government probably felt a little emboldened to act as a result of the dire signs from Moscow concerning the Russian economy, Mr. Saunders says. But he adds that economic considerations are not likely to moderate Russias reaction to the parliamentary vote.

From Moscows perspective this is clearly a provocative and inflammatory step, he says. Indeed, on Tuesday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the vote would have extremely negative consequences, while Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev wrote on his Facebook page that the vote is tantamount to an application to join NATO.

However, the parliamentary vote is highly symbolic and has little concrete impact. Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko has said a decision to seek NATO membership would come from the Ukrainian people in a referendum vote, and that such a referendum would not take place before the end of the decade.

But the parliamentary votewill add to keeping tensions alive because it feeds the perceptions that each side in the larger Ukraine-Russia conflict has about the other, Saunders says.

If were objective about it, how could the Kremlin annex Crimea and not expect a vote like this? he says. On the other hand, no one should be surprised by the Russian response. No leader, he adds, would want to see a neighboring country move toward joining what people in his country perceive to be a hostile military alliance.

Events in Ukraine like the parliamentary vote are also part of what will be a sustained period of unpredictable tensions between Russia and the West, other analysts say.

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Ukraine pokes Russia, makes move toward NATO. Was it really necessary? (+video)

Support to NATO #39;s priorities - Joint ISR
The NCI Agency played an important enabling role in the largest ever test of NATO #39;s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities that beg...

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Support to NATO's priorities - Joint ISR - Video

RUSSIA PREPARES FOR WAR - Putin Orders Snap Military Drills on NATO Border
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RUSSIA PREPARES FOR WAR - Putin Orders Snap Military Drills on NATO Border - Video

Ukraine News Dec 22-Finland and France say NO to NATO
1) Dnipropetrovsk authorities stop convoy headed for Donbass 2) Rossiya Segodnya opens memorial plague to honor of Andrei Stenin 3) Finnish Prime Minister not ready for possible NATO ...

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Ukraine News Dec 22-Finland and France say NO to NATO - Video