Ukraine giving up non-alignment has complicated difficult situation: Russia

Moscow: Moscow said on Wednesday Kiev’s decision to give up its neutral status and seek closer ties with NATO was a result of pressure from the Atlantic bloc, which wanted to turn Ukraine into a “front line of confrontation”. Ukraine’s parliament this week renounced Ukraine’s “non-aligned” status with the aim of eventually joining NATO, whose ties with Russia have plummeted to Cold War-era lows over the crisis in Ukraine. [caption id=“attachment_1855363” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AP[/caption] “NATO countries pushed Kiev to this counterproductive decision, trying to turn Ukraine into a front line of confrontation with Russia,” Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov told the Russian news agency Interfax. “The decision of Ukraine’s parliament to give up its non-aligned status will only complicate an already difficult situation,” he said. The move has angered Moscow at a time when Russia, Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels are trying to find a political solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine. NATO and the pro-Western government in Kiev say they have evidence that Russia has orchestrated and armed a pro-Russian rebellion in eastern Ukraine that followed the overthrow of a Ukrainian president sympathetic to Moscow. The Kremlin denies that it is behind the revolt.