Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia has never opposed Ukraine’s EU membership, but draws line on its neighbor joining the NATO defensive military alliance.
He made his comments as he met Slovakia’s President Robert Fico in Beijing.
Commenting, Putin said that that Moscow had never opposed Ukraine’s potential membership of the 27-member bloc and pushed back against claims that Moscow had plans to attack Europe.
Reuters reported that the Russian leader said that NATO’s eastward expansion wanted to absorb the entire post-Soviet space, while Russia was simply forced to defend its interests. He said Ukrainian membership of NATO was not acceptable to Russia.
Fico was the only EU leader in Tuesday’s Chinese Event or the Victory Day parade in Moscow in May, but he stressed he wanted to show his respect to all victims of World War II.
Fico pushed for normalization of economic relations with Russia and criticized Ukraine for attacks on critical gas infrastructure carrying Russian gas to Slovakia and Hungary.
