London. January 12. INTERFAX - Russian Ambassador to London Andrey Kelin said that NATO promotes Ukraine's aggressive attitude towards Russia.
"We see that NATO is pushing Ukraine to be more and more aggressive. We don't want that," Kelin said in an interview with Sky News.
"We saw a similar situation in 2008, when NATO promised to accept Georgia into NATO and Georgia became very aggressive, became aggressive towards South Ossetia and Abkhazia," he said.
According to him, any state has the right to make a decision on joining the alliance in accordance with its interests.
"But at the same time, each state must take into account the interests of (...) neighbors, history, economic situation, all factors should be taken into account, not just one," the ambassador stressed.
At the same time, Kelin expressed the opinion that the accession of Ukraine and Georgia to NATO will not contribute to security in Europe, but, on the contrary, may lead to the risk of war.
The Ambassador drew attention to a number of aggressive steps taken by NATO at the Russian borders. In particular, the exercises of the Alliance's Navy members in the Black Sea, the increase in the organization's military contingent in Poland and the appearance of its military infrastructure in Eastern Europe.
"It's dangerous for us, there is a risk of a full-scale war, that's why we have to act. We are conducting exercises, (...) the troops are ready to respond to any threats," he said.
According to him, Russia wants to agree on "principles of coexistence" with NATO to stabilize the situation in Europe, which will be "fixed on paper" and will not depend on the position of a particular presidential administration in the United States.
Speaking about the idea of Russia joining NATO, Kelin noted that it has never been realistic.
Regarding the meeting of the Russia-NATO Council scheduled for Wednesday, the Russian ambassador said that the worst outcome would be a repetition of positions from other NATO members, as has been happening recently.
