July 14, 2017
Baltic News Network
NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg during a visit to Ukraine stressed that in the war-torn east of the country, Minsk agreements «must be fully implemented and OSCE monitors be granted full, safe and unhindered access to the whole of Ukraine».
Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reports that NATO will never recognize the illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula by the Russian Federation, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in his opening remarks at the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission in Kyiv July 10.
«We are also here to demonstrate NATO’s solidarity with Ukraine and our firm support for the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of your country. (..) Russia has maintained its aggressive actions against Ukraine. But NATO and NATO Allies stand on your side. NATO Allies do not, and will not, recognize Russia’s illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea. And we remain concerned by the security situation in Eastern Ukraine, which has already cost thousands of lives,» Stoltenberg stated.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has, meanwhile, stated that the country has set its defence goal to seek NATO membership, but not in the near future.
