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Ukraine parliament votes to take step toward NATO, angering Russia

MOSCOW In a sign of Ukraines hardening attitude toward Russia, Ukrainian lawmakers on Tuesday voted to remove a legal barrier to joining the NATO defense alliance.

The move provoked an angry response from Russia, even though NATO shows few signs of accepting Ukraine as a member anytime soon. But this years bloody conflict in Ukraines east has altered the countrys feelings about the Western alliance. A plurality of Ukrainians now favor joining NATO, a stark change from recent years when just a small fraction did.

Ukraines decision comes as Russia struggles with a weakened ruble and growing concerns about economic instability.

The vote in Ukraines parliament had no immediate practical effect on the countrys relationship with NATO. But it ended Ukraines nonaligned status, which was adopted as a way of reassuring Russia that its neighbor would not join NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin cited his fear of Ukraines joining NATO as a reason Russia annexed Crimea in March.

The proposal to eliminate nonaligned status passed easily, with 303 of the Ukrainian parliaments 450 lawmakers in support. After the vote, legislators stood up and applauded.

Finally, we corrected a mistake. 303 votes and Ukraines nonaligned status is out, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. There is no alternative to Euro-Atlantic integration. Glory to Ukraine!

Russian leaders reacted immediately with harsh denunciations, warning Ukraine and NATO that no good could come of the decision.

This is counterproductive and only escalates confrontations and creates an illusion that by adopting such laws it might be possible to settle a profound domestic crisis in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported.

He called for dialogue inside Ukraine, where Russian-supported rebels in the east have waged a war that has claimed more than 4,700 lives.

A day earlier, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned on his Facebook page that application for membership in NATO would turn Ukraine into a potential military adversary for Russia.

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Ukraine parliament votes to take step toward NATO, angering Russia

December 23rd, 2014

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Ukraine takes historic step towards NATO

The Ukraine parliament voted overwhelmingly to take steps towards joining NATO. Photo: AFP

Moscow: The Ukrainian parliament has voted to take steps towards joining NATO, a pointed rebuke to Russia that immediately drew an angry response.

With a Russian-backed separatist insurgency still gripping eastern Ukraine, the parliament voted overwhelmingly 303-8, to repeal a 2010 law that codified a policy of "non-alignment," and to instead pursue closer military and strategic ties with the West.

Former president Viktor Yanukovych, who was toppled in February after months of huge street protests in Kiev, pushed through the 2010 law shortly after he took office. Mr Yanukovych fled to Russia after he lost power.

A protester argues with police in front of Ukrainian Parliament. Photo: AFP

The 2010 law defined non-alignment as "non-participation of Ukraine in the military-political alliances".

The revised law, which was a priority of President Petro Poroshenko, requires Ukraine to "deepen co-operation with NATO in order to achieve the criteria required for membership in this organisation."

For now, it still seems unlikely that Ukraine will join NATO, in part because of Russia's strong opposition.Moscow had set Kiev's exclusion from all military blocs as a condition for any deal on ending the pro-Russian uprising that has killed 4700 in the eastern Ukrainian rust belt in the past eight months.

Russia has denied repeatedly that it set off the separatist violence in eastern Ukraine, but in recent months it has also made clear that preventing Ukraine from seeking NATO membership is one of its top goals. In November, President Vladimir Putin's personal spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told the BBC: "We would like to hear a 100 per cent guarantee that no one would think about Ukraine's joining NATO."

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Ukraine takes historic step towards NATO

December 23rd, 2014

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Ukraine moves away from nonaligned status

Kiev, Ukraine Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday voted to abandon the country's nonaligned status, a move that could be a step toward seeking membership in NATO.

Supporters of the move, which passed by a 303-9 vote, said it was justified by Russian aggression toward Ukraine, including the annexation of its Crimean Peninsula in March and Russian support for a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, where some 4,700 people have been killed since the spring.

But opponents said it will only increase tensions, and Moscow echoed that view.

"This is counterproductive, it only heats up the confrontation, creating the illusion that accepting such a law is the road to regulating the deep internal crisis in Ukraine," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Russia routinely characterizes the Ukrainian crisis as an internal matter and rejects claims from Ukraine and the West that it has sent troops and equipment to eastern Ukraine and shelled the region from Russian border areas.

Although Ukraine had pursued NATO membership several years ago, it declared itself a non-bloc country after Russia-friendly Viktor Yanukovych became president in 2010. Yanukovych fled the country in February after months of street protests that exploded into violence, and was replaced by Western-leaning Petro Poroshenko in May.

Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and its support for the separatist insurgency appear partly rooted in fears that the Western military alliance could expand its presence on the Russian border. Current NATO members Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland all border Russia

The vote does not mean that Ukraine will apply to join NATO. But "in the conditions of the current aggression against Ukraine, this law opens for us new mechanisms," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told the parliament.

However, Ukraine's prospects for NATO membership in the near term appear dim. With its long-underfunded military suffering from the war with the separatists and the country's economy in peril, Ukraine has much to overcome to achieve the stability that the alliance seeks in members.

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Ukraine moves away from nonaligned status

December 23rd, 2014

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