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Author Topic: Friendship between Russia and Ukraine comes to an end  (Read 1842 times)

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Offline Olga

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Friendship between Russia and Ukraine comes to an end
« on: January 23, 2008, 02:25:07 PM »
23.01.2008     Source: Pravda.Ru

If Ukraine becomes a NATO member, Russia will be forced to take adequate measures in return. Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry released a statement in connection with a letter from the Ukrainian administration to include Ukraine in NATO Membership Action Plan

“We believe that any country is free to independently choose a way to guarantee its own security, including the expansion of ties with military and political structures,” the statement from Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. “However, the new radical expansion of NATO may lead to serious military and political changes which will inevitably touch upon Russia’s security interests,” it continued.

The ministry reminded that Russia and Ukraine have been practicing friendly bilateral relations documented in the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership signed in 1997. According to the treaty, the two countries refrain from participating or supporting any actions that could damage their security. In this connection, a possible integration of Ukraine into NATO will seriously complicate Russian-Ukrainian relations. “The Russian administration is led to believe that the current Ukrainian administration views its NATO membership as an alternative to friendly ties with the Russian Federation.

Russia diplomatically tried to warn Ukraine not to sit on the fence. However, Kiev showed a hysterical reaction to the statement from Russia’s Foreign Ministry. Oleg Bilorus, the chairman of Ukraine’s Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs, said that Ukraine as a sovereign state was entitled to join various international organizations like NATO or the WTO. The official urged the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine to release a reciprocal statement.

Furthermore, Oleg Bilorus said that Russia was taking an “irresponsibly absurd action” threatening Ukraine with a “two-sided joke.” The official stated that Russia was a de-factor NATO member and had no right to put obstacles on the way of the free Ukrainian nation.

It is worthy of note that the majority of Ukrainians stand against the idea of joining the North Atlantic Alliance.

In the meantime, opposition lawmakers blocked the work of the Ukrainian parliament protesting against government’s efforts about NATO membership.

The above-mentioned letter, signed by Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Parliament Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk, asked that Ukraine's bid for the Membership Action Plan be considered at a NATO meeting in Romania in April.

But the Russia-friendly opposition Party of Regions - the largest faction in the 450-seat Supreme Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) - said the move was inappropriate, and lawmakers angrily swarmed the parliament hall's main podium, halting the chamber's work.

"The powers-that-be ignored the people's will and made a decision on an issue that should be made only by the Ukrainian people following a public discussion," Olena Lukash, a senior member of Party of Regions, said in a statement.

A survey of 2,012 Ukrainians taken in December found that 58.9 percent opposed NATO membership, while 21 percent favored it. The rest of respondents were undecided.

Offline ForgeMaster

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Re: Friendship between Russia and Ukraine comes to an end
« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2008, 02:41:13 PM »
"If Ukraine becomes a NATO member, Russia will be forced to take adequate measures in return."

I am sorry.  The relationship between R & U is not something I know a lot about.  What measures would be adequate in this case?  Is it an action where Russia is forced to protect itself... or.... Russia will be forced to join that group so that it has a voice against what the Ukraine says about Russia in meetings?  I guess in a worse case scenario, NATO would side together against Russia, a nonmember?

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Offline virgo1

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Re: Friendship between Russia and Ukraine comes to an end
« Reply #2 on: January 23, 2008, 02:43:26 PM »
Maybe they will turn the gas off again??


Offline Manny

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Re: Friendship between Russia and Ukraine comes to an end
« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2008, 03:15:23 PM »
Maybe they will turn the gas off again??

That seems quite likely. In the Sunday Times (UK) this week was an article about how the EU is encouraging Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus to come together CIS style. Apparantly this is spearheaded by Gordon Brown (Whilst jollying with Richard Branson in China) in retaliation to Russia's behaviour against the UK of late. Also it is designed to prevent Russia teaming up with Belarus which would involve a re write of the constitution and that would include Putin being President of the new state. (What a shock) Belarus's president would then be Prime Minister under Putin's alleged plans.
Read a trip report from North Korea >>here<< - Read a trip report from South Korea, China and Hong Kong >>here<<

Look what the American media makes some people believe:
Putin often threatens to strike US with nuclear weapons.

Offline Jinx

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Re: Friendship between Russia and Ukraine comes to an end
« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2008, 11:32:28 PM »
 Does anybody think Russia would take any military action if Ukraine took further steps to join NATO?
 
 I don't see that happening personally, but with Putin's 'Soviet' style of leadership anything is possible I guess. I hope it never comes to that, Ukraine has no army!  :scared0005:

Offline Olga

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Russia takes move to show Ukraine its place which is not near NATO
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2008, 06:59:35 AM »
01/25/2008 10:08     Source: AP ©

Russia has decided to stop using military radars built during the Soviet era in Ukraine against the background of Kiev’s bid to become a NATO member.

Russian lawmakers simultaneously voted to extend another deal calling Ukraine to help maintain Russian ballistic missiles. The move displays strong military ties between Russia and Ukraine.

The State Duma voted 388-58 with one abstension to scrap the 1997 agreement with Ukraine which allowed Russia to use data from the radars located near the western town of Mukachevo and the port of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula. The huge facilities were part of a Soviet system of early warning radars intended to spot missile launches.

Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov said the Ukrainian leadership's push for NATO membership had prompted the military to reconsider the agreement. "This is our response to the Ukrainian government's to quickly join NATO," he said.

Pankov also told lawmakers that the radars were past their designated lifetime and had become too costly to maintain. He said that the facilities had become increasingly unreliable and could produce wrong information on missile launches.

Pankov said Russia had built a new early warning radar near St. Petersburg and would soon commission another one near the southern city of Armavir.

The Communist Party faction opposed the move, saying that the decision would strain ties with Ukraine and hurt Russia's security. "With this decision, we are literally pushing Ukraine to join NATO," said Communist lawmaker Anatoly Lokot.

Earlier this month, Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Parliament Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk signed a formal request asking for Ukraine's bid for the Membership Action Plan to be considered at a NATO meeting in Romania in April - a crucial step on the road to joining the alliance.

NATO membership is a highly controversial issue in Ukraine, where opinion polls show that over half of the country opposes it. Pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko, however, has declared joining NATO a priority.

Ukraine's NATO bid faces strong opposition from Russia, which has been angered by NATO's eastward expansion and deployments close to its borders and argues that the alliance is a Cold War relic that should be replaced by other international security arrangements.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned earlier this week that Ukraine's bid to join NATO would affect the bilateral military-technical cooperation.

Russia has continued to rely on Ukraine's military industrial complex for supplies of spare parts for Soviet-designed weapons. Underlining this dependence, the Duma on Friday voted 446-0 to ratify an agreement envisaging Ukraine supplying components for the SS-18 Satan missiles, the heaviest nuclear weapons in the Russian military's arsenals.

During the Soviet times, the missiles were manufactured by Ukraine's Yuzhmash missile factory in eastern Ukraine.

"It will help strengthen the positions of our allies - workers of defense plants in Ukraine," lawmaker Sergei Markov of the main pro-Kremlin United Russia faction said during Friday's debates.

Most residents of Ukraine's Russian-speaking east strongly oppose Yushchenko's bid for NATO membership.


 

 

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