MOSCOW, January 23/ Sputnik Radio. Ukraine will not be able to join NATO in the foreseeable future, former Secretary General of the organization Jaap de Hop Scheffer said.
"In the foreseeable and unforeseen future, they (the Ukrainian partners of the bloc, - ed.) will not become a member of NATO. And I think the whole group at the table in Bucharest (at the summit in 2008) knew this. It was already clear that for the opponents (of Ukraine's membership in NATO), this (delay in joining the alliance, - ed.) will last until hell freezes over," RIA Novosti quotes de Hop Scheffer.
In December 2021, Russia published drafts of a treaty with the United States and an agreement with NATO on security guarantees.
Moscow, in particular, demands from Western partners legal guarantees against further expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance to the east, from joining the bloc of Ukraine and from the creation of military bases in post-Soviet countries.
Earlier, Sputnik radio reported details of talks between Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
