Merkel Said to Reject Ukraine NATO Bid 

By Patrick Donahue, Arne Delfs and Ilya Arkhipov

Bloomberg Nov 26, 2014  |  

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is alarmed by President Petro Poroshenko’s plan to hold a referendum on Ukraine joining NATO, seeing it as a dead end that would only inflame tensions with Russia.
Ukrainian membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is not on the table for Merkel, according to one German official, who said that a referendum wouldn’t bring Ukraine closer to NATO since decisions on membership are made by Alliance countries and not voters. Any bid to join NATO can only end badly, a second official said. Both asked not to be named discussing German government strategy.
It’s a stance that Merkel and Vladimir Putin can agree on, even as she vents frustration at her inability to sway the Russian president to resolve the crisis. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-26/merkel-said-to-reject-ukraine-s-nato-bid-over-russian-tensions.html