RUSSIA SAYS NATO WANTS TO TURN UKRAINE INTO ‘FRONT LINE OF CONFRONTATION

December 24, 2014 – 13:45 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Moscow said on Wednesday, Dec 24, Kiev’s decision
to give up its neutral status and seek closer ties with NATO was
a result of pressure from the Atlantic bloc, which wanted to turn
Ukraine into a “front line of confrontation”, according to Reuters.

Ukraine’s parliament this week renounced Ukraine’s “non-aligned”
status with the aim of eventually joining NATO, whose ties with Russia
have plummeted to Cold War-era lows over the crisis in Ukraine.

“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.

“The decision of Ukraine’s parliament to give up its non-aligned
status will only complicate an already difficult situation,” he said.

The move has angered Moscow at a time when Russia, Ukraine and
pro-Russian forces are trying to find a political solution to the
crisis in eastern Ukraine.

NATO and the pro-Western government in Kiev say they have evidence
that Russia has orchestrated and armed a pro-Russian rebellion in
eastern Ukraine that followed the overthrow of a Ukrainian president
sympathetic to Moscow. The Kremlin denies that it is behind the revolt.

From: A. Papazian