Ukraine turns towards Nato, increasing tension between Russia and west

Ukraine turns towards Nato, increasing tension between Russia and west

Sergei Kuznetsov | Dec 03 14:43 |

“Today it is clear that Ukraine’s non-aligned status, proclaimed in 2010, cannot guarantee our security and territorial integrity. We must abolish it. This position has led to serious losses. That is why we have decided to return to the course of Nato integration.”
So said Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s president (pictured), in a speech to the new parliament in Kiev last week. It came just a fortnight after Moscow described the possibility of Ukraine joining Nato as a “red line” in its relations with the west and demanded, in the words of a Russian presidential spokesman, a “100 per cent guarantee that no-one would think about Ukraine joining Nato.”
Will Ukraine really push ahead with Nato accession? Nato made its own position clear quickly enough: on Friday, the alliance updated its fact sheet on relations with Russia to state that “Ukraine has the right to choose its own alliances, and Russia has, by its own repeated agreement, no right to dictate that choice.”http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2014/12/03/ukraine-turns-towards-nato-increasing-tension-between-russia-and-west/