Russia calls Ukraine's NATO refusal key demand; Ukraine’s MFA responds

Russian service of Interfax cited Grusho's statement.

Grushko claimed that Ukraine's potential NATO membership "makes it impossible to achieve peace in Ukraine and, more broadly, to create any security architecture."  

"For us, this is one of the key elements of a possible agreement on the conflict in Ukraine, an element related to removing the root causes of this conflict. We will not only demand ironclad international legal guarantees that would make Ukraine's NATO membership impossible in any form, but we will also insist that this become the policy of the Alliance itself," said the Deputy Minister.  

He also described the 2008 Bucharest NATO summit decision as "catastrophic for European security," particularly the affirmation of the Alliance's intention to accept Ukraine and Georgia at the highest level.

"The failure to retract this formulation will create ambiguity, which is absolutely unacceptable for us when we speak of the need to achieve a viable, sustainable, and ironclad resolution of the conflict in Ukraine and around it," Alexander Grushko said.

Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs' response

The spokesperson for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Heorhii Tykhyi, commented on the statement from the Russian Deputy Minister and called it "utter b*llshit."  

"Aw shucks, North Korea’s ally issuing ultimatums to NATO. Utter bullshit. Moscow has no say here," Tykhyi wrote.  

He also emphasized that Russia is waging a war of aggression in Europe and added that the architecture of European security is built on protection from Russia.

• The only real security guarantee for Ukraine is joining NATO. That would put an end to Russian aggression, said Oleksandr Merezhko, head of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada Committee on Foreign Policy and Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation.