Ukraine to seek protection from NATO
UKRAINE said yesterday it will seek the protection of NATO membership after what Kiev and its Western allies said is the open participation of the Russian military in the war in Ukraine’s eastern provinces.
Formal Ukrainian membership in the military alliance — which would come with the full protection of a mutual defense pact with the United States — remains an unlikely prospect in the near future.
But by announcing it is seeking it, Kiev is taking its most decisive step yet to pursue Western military protection from what it now describes as an invasion by its neighbor.
NATO’s secretary general said he respects Ukraine’s right to seek membership, and accused Russia of blatantly and illegally intervening in Ukraine.
Moscow denies its forces are fighting to support pro-Russia rebels who have declared independence in eastern Ukraine, but the rebels have all but confirmed it, saying thousands of Russian troops have fought on their behalf while “on leave.”
The arrival of what Western governments said are columns of Russian troops in recent days has tipped the balance toward the rebels after weeks in which Ukrainian forces appeared to be gaining the upper hand.
Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk told a government meeting yesterday the cabinet will “bring before parliament a law to scrap the non-aligned status of the Ukrainian state and establish a course toward membership of NATO.”
Were NATO to contemplate extending its mutual defense pact to Ukraine, it would be the biggest change in the security architecture of Europe since the 1990s.
After the Cold War, NATO defied Russian objections and expanded to grant its security guarantees to former Communist countries like Poland, Hungary and Romania. But it largely stopped at the border of the former Soviet Union, admitting only the Baltic states Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
NATO denied Ukraine a fast track toward membership in 2008.
Ukraine’s pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovich had pursued non-aligned status, while President Petro Poroshenko, who succeeded him in June, also said he did not back joining NATO because there was no popular support for it.
But with the conflict in the east escalating, officials say public support for joining the alliance is mounting.
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