The main task of the new Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexey Reznikov will be to create at least one NATO military base in the country. This was announced on Friday, November 12, by the deputy from the pro-presidential party "Servant of the People" Oleg Dunda.
"Reznikov's task is to drag the United States into closer cooperation with Ukraine and create at least one NATO military base in Ukraine," the Ukrainian edition of The Observer quotes Dunda as saying.
According to the deputy, the head of the Ministry of Defense may need at least six months to achieve this goal. He also expressed the opinion that the involvement of the alliance is possible without Ukraine joining it. As an example, Dunda cited the NATO base in Qatar.
On November 4, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the appointment of Reznikov to the post of Minister of Defense, the candidacy was supported by 273 deputies with the required minimum of 226 votes. Thus, Reznikov took the place of Andrei Taran, who resigned on November 2. Reznikov's candidacy to the parliament was introduced by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
Earlier on Friday, Ted Galen Carpenter, senior researcher for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, said that NATO countries are provoking a conflict between Ukraine and Russia. According to him, the alliance does this by supplying weapons to Ukraine. At the same time, he stressed that NATO seeks to shift responsibility for its actions and the growth of tension to the Kremlin.
On November 11, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said that any intentions to see Ukraine in NATO are unacceptable for Russia. The diplomat also noted after the meeting between the head of the US State Department Anthony Blinken and the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Dmitry Kuleba that the US plans to supply weapons to Kiev will aggravate the situation in the south-east of Ukraine.
On October 25, Ukraine was invited for the first time to the expanded format of the Conference of National Directors of Armaments at NATO headquarters in Brussels. On October 22, Kuleba said that Ukraine's membership in the European Union and NATO is only a matter of time.
On October 18, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Ukraine's accession to NATO is the worst-case scenario, since it goes beyond the red lines of Russia's national interests.
