Russia and the West are now locked in a state of “deep confrontation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview broadcast on a Russian television channel on July 14.
Mr. Peskov criticized NATO in particular for failing to meet Moscow’s longstanding demand that Ukraine, which shares a border with Russia, remain outside the Western alliance.
“The alliance says: ‘Ukraine will be in NATO,’” the spokesman said.
“In other words, they are saying: ‘We will never take Russia’s key concerns [about Ukraine joining NATO] into account.’”
Therefore, Mr. Peskov added, “there are no prerequisites for [peace] talks so far.”
The spokesman’s remarks follow a NATO summit in Washington, at which alliance members reaffirmed their support for Kyiv’s ongoing war effort.
At the event, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also attended, NATO members announced plans to provide Kyiv with a further 40 billion euros in military aid (about $43 billion) over the coming year.
Yet despite the near-unanimous show of support, Ukraine failed to obtain a formal invitation to join the 32-member alliance.
Nevertheless, alliance members pledged to continue supporting Ukraine’s “irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership.”
In the meantime, Kyiv will continue the “vital work” of implementing needed political, economic, and security reforms, according to the declaration.
At a joint press conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Mr. Zelenskyy said Ukraine was “very close to achieving [its] goal” of becoming a member of the transatlantic alliance.
‘Natural Response’
Mr. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, described the summit’s outcome—especially as it pertained to Ukraine’s “irreversible” path to NATO membership—as “alarming.”“The alliance did not opt for any flexibility regarding our main concern about Ukraine joining NATO,” he said.
Instead, he added, the alliance had made it clear that Ukraine would join sooner or later, “demonstrating its intention“ to remain an ”enemy” of Russia.
Moscow began its invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2022 with the stated aim of protecting Russian speakers in the Donbas region.
Kyiv and its allies say the invasion, which is now in its third year, constitutes an illegal and unprovoked land grab by Russia.
From the outset, however, Moscow has claimed that its “special military operation” was a “natural response” to NATO’s slow but steady eastward expansion over the past three decades.
According to Moscow, NATO has inched ever closer to Russia’s borders—despite earlier pledges not to do so—since the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991.
“Many times we were promised things [by the West], like the non-expansion of NATO eastward,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in broadcast remarks in March.
“But the next thing we knew, they [NATO] were sitting on our borders.”
In April, Mr. Peskov repeated claims that the Western alliance was “continuing to encroach on [Russia’s] borders and expand its military infrastructure.”
Western officials, however, reject this characterization, insisting that NATO is a purely “defensive” alliance and that all democratic nations are welcome to join.
Moscow’s claims regarding NATO enlargement, however, are not entirely without foundation.
In 1999, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic joined NATO, bringing the total number of members to 19. Five years later, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia also joined.
Moscow was particularly incensed by the accession of the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), all of which share borders with Russian territory.
Nevertheless, several more European states have joined NATO since then, including Albania and Croatia (2009), Montenegro (2017), and North Macedonia (2020).
Finland and Sweden entered the alliance in 2023 and 2024, respectively, ending the two countries’ longstanding policies of non-alignment.
At the time, Russia described the accession of Finland, with which it shares an 810-mile border, as a “historic mistake” that would only increase the potential for conflict.
Mr. Stoltenberg said the move would contribute to making Finland safer and NATO stronger.
In December 2023, Sweden and Finland signed defense pacts with the United States, allowing for the rapid deployment of U.S. troops and equipment to the territory of both countries.
Speaking at last week’s NATO summit, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed the two Scandinavian countries’ recent accession to the alliance.
Despite Moscow’s protestations, Mr. Blinken also called for a “strong, robust, well-lit bridge to NATO membership for Ukraine.”
As of publication, the State Department had yet to respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment on Mr. Peskov’s remarks about Ukraine’s membership bid.
