Russia slapped down by head of Nato amid Ukraine troop moves
Secretary general says that Moscow cannot veto a decision over its neighbour joining military alliance
‘It’s Ukraine and 30 Nato allies that decide when Ukraine is ready to join Nato. Russia has no say and no right to establish a sphere of influence’
RUSSIA has “no right” to demand Ukraine be permanently excluded from Nato, the head of the military alliance said yesterday, as President Putin suggested he would insist on such a move as a guarantee of peace.
The comments by Jens Stoltenberg, Nato secretary general, came as alliance foreign ministers met in Latvia, in part to discuss the Russian troop build-up near the Ukrainian border that has sparked fears of an imminent invasion.
“It’s Ukraine and 30 Nato allies that decide when Ukraine is ready to join Nato,” he said. “Russia has no veto, Russia has no say and Russia has no right to establish a sphere of influence, trying to control their neighbours.
“This idea that Nato’s support to sovereign nations is a provocation is just wrong.”
There has been speculation that Moscow has sent an estimated 100,000 troops towards the border with Ukraine to pressure the West into guaranteeing Kyiv would not be allowed to join Nato.
The US said it had evidence that Russia drew up plans to attack Ukraine. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, told reporters in Riga: “We’re deeply concerned by evidence that Russia has made plans for significant aggressive moves against Ukraine.
“Plans include efforts to destabilise Ukraine from within as well as largescale military operations. We don’t know whether President Putin has made the decision to invade. We do know that he is putting in place the capacity to do so on short order should he so decide.”
Mr Putin said yesterday: “In our dialogue with the United States and its allies we will insist on practical agreements that will rule out any further eastward expansion of Nato as well as deploying weaponry near our territory that might threaten us.”
He said Russia needed “legal security guarantees” rather than verbal assurances, saying Nato had made promises to Russia before “and did the opposite”.
The Kremlin adviser Fyodor Lukyanov suggested last month that Russia would invade Ukraine, in a repeat of its 2014 annexation of Crimea, if such conditions were not met.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said yesterday that an offer by Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian dictator, to host Russian nuclear weapons was a warning to the West.
Mr Lukashenko said he felt obliged to make the offer because of hostile Nato moves in the region. Moscow has long denied that its manoeuvres were aggressive, saying they were in response to acts by Western forces.
Mr Stoltenberg raised the possibility last month of moving Nato’s nuclear weapons closer to Russia if Germany’s new government decided it no longer wanted to host US bombs on its soil.
Mr Lavrov said yesterday that the plan was “irresponsible”. He also raised concerns about a build-up of Ukrainian government troops near the front line with Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.