Friday 17th December 2021
Alliance reacts negatively
Russia publishes demands on NATO
In the Ukraine conflict, the Kremlin is now submitting its demands to NATO in writing: The defense alliance should refrain from admitting the country and refrain from military action there. The proposal does not meet with approval from NATO.
After the demands of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin for an end to NATO’s eastward expansion, Moscow has now presented a draft of a possible agreement with the West on security guarantees in Europe. Russia also directly calls for the Western military alliance to renounce Ukraine.
According to the text published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NATO states should also undertake to refrain from military action in Ukraine, the states of Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Russia had already discussed the proposals in the past few days with representatives of Western countries, including the USA. Putin recently had a video switch with US President Joe Biden. The Kremlin chief also informed French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson about Moscow’s demands for security guarantees.
A Ukrainian soldier killed in combat
However, the reactions of the US and NATO so far could not give reason for hope that the proposals would be accepted, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, according to the Interfax agency. The government in Washington and the Western Defense Alliance have so far rejected Russia’s proposals. At the same time, he emphasized that Russia was categorically against Ukraine’s membership in NATO and would fight against it. The nuclear power sees its security threatened if NATO should advance into Ukrainian territory and thus to the borders of Russia.
According to government troops, one of their soldiers was killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian military said that pro-Russian rebels had attacked army positions with grenade launchers and mortars. One soldier was killed and another injured. Since the beginning of the year, 65 people have been killed in the conflict in Eastern Ukraine; 50 deaths were reported throughout the past year.
In eastern Ukraine, pro-Russian militias and the Ukrainian army have been fighting each other since 2014 after Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. In the conflict, Moscow supports the separatists who have proclaimed so-called People’s Republics in Luhansk and Donetsk. In total, more than 13,000 people have already been killed in the fighting.