Putin affirms that Ukraine’s entry into NATO can provoke a war between Russia and the Atlantic Alliance

Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of using Ukraine as an “instrument” against Russia and has assured that the enlargement of NATO can only be carried out with the approval of all its members.

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The Russian President, Vladimir Putinstated today that Ukraine’s entry into NATO could lead to a war between Russia and the Atlantic Alliance for control of the Crimean peninsula.

“Let’s imagine that Ukraine, as a NATO country, initiates this military operation (for control of Crimea). What do we do? Do we fight with NATO? Has anyone thought of that? It seems not,” Putin said during the joint press conference in the Kremlin with the Prime Minister of Hungary, Victor Orban.

Putin has raised the possibility of Kiev launching a military operation against Crimea and Donbas once NATO deploys modern offensive weapons on its territory, as it has already done in Poland and Romania.

And he recalled that the Kremlin considers the issue of Crimea “closed”, a territory bathed by the Black Sea that Moscow qualifies as its “sovereign territory”.

In addition, he stressed that NATO’s open door policy is not written anywhere. “Where did it come from? Where is it written? Nowhere”has assured.

In this sense, Putin has recalled that in article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty creating NATO it is written that the Alliance “can accept” within it to other European countries with the approval of all its members.

“It can, but it is not obliged. Both the US and NATO can say, including Ukraine, that we want to guarantee your security, we value it. We respect your aspiration, but we cannot accept you, since we have other international obligations,” he specified. “What does Ukraine not understand or bother about?” he asked.

“You have to find a way ensure the safety and interests of all participants in this process, from Ukraine to European countries and Russia. But this is only possible through a serious and balanced analysis of the proposals included in our documents”, he pointed out.

On the other hand, he has accused the US not so much of worrying about the security of the neighboring country, but of use Ukraine as an “instrument” to “contain the development of Russia”.

“Drag us into an armed conflict and impose the toughest sanctions with the help of your allies in Europe. Or drag Ukraine into NATO, place offensive weapons there and encourage the ultra-nationalists to settle the Donbas and Crimea issue militarily, so that too would push us into an armed conflict“, has warned.

Putin stressed that “if one wants to avoid such a negative development of events, and we want to do so, one must really take into account the interests of all countries, including Russia, and find a variant to solve this problem.”

He has also accused Western leaders of failing to keep their promise not to expand NATO “one inch” into Eastern Europe.

In addition, he stressed that the US and NATO have ignored Russia’s main security “concerns” for the time being, especially in relation to the Alliance’s expansion to the east.

“We are looking closely at the US and NATO written response. But now it is clear that Russia’s main concerns have been ignored,” he said.