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Ukraine Can Join EU Only if It Stays Out of Military Alliances
Kyiv Post • • world
Key Points:
- Russia is willing to accept Ukraine joining the EU but insists that Kyiv must remain outside all military alliances, including NATO and European ones, according to Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky during closed-door talks in Abu Dhabi.
- Medinsky criticized NATO’s eastward expansion, claiming Western countries had promised not to expand NATO after the Soviet Union's collapse but later admitted former Soviet bloc countries into the alliance.
- Moscow has repeatedly demanded Ukrainian neutrality and restrictions on its military capabilities, including a 2025 memorandum requiring Ukraine to ban military alliances, limit armed forces, and withdraw troops from occupied regions as conditions for a ceasefire.
- Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, have maintained that Ukraine must abandon NATO ambitions and adopt neutral status for peace, alongside demands for international recognition of Russian claims to Crimea and other regions.
- Following the Abu Dhabi talks, US envoys are traveling to Moscow to meet President Putin before briefing the Ukrainian delegation in Dublin on the discussions' outcomes.
