«Veto» on Ukraine’s accession to NATO: what demands did Russia make to the West 

Kremlin relations

On 17 December 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry published a document-draft agreement with NATO member states to deny Ukraine’s membership in the organization and further enlargement to the east.

Moscow says it needs to negotiate international legal agreements on NATO enlargement and, in particular, on Ukraine’s accession to the alliance.

Application for the accession of Ukraine and Georgia to NATO in 2008

Previously, countries of the former USSR, such as Ukraine and Georgia, had expressed their desire to become part of NATO. At that time, the Government of the Russian Federation strongly opposed the organization’s possible acceptance of the statement. Moscow believed that NATO’s advance to the East would threaten its strategic interests in Europe. If the above-mentioned countries were included in NATO, Russia warned that it would have to take “military and other measures” to ensure its security close to the borders of the State.

In order to be accepted into the Alliance, the consent of all the States that are already members of the Alliance is required. At the time of 2008, their accession had been opposed by France and Germany, which were supported by several other countries.

At that time, Ukraine and Georgia were told that it was only a matter of time before they joined NATO.

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Even earlier, in the 1990s, during the USSR-US negotiations on German unification (as claimed by the Russian side), a verbal agreement was made not to expand NATO eastwards. In case this agreement was indeed made, it was already breached by the North Atlantic Alliance in 2004, when it incorporated former Soviet countries such as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

The current agenda

Moscow’s demand is prompted by the fact that Ukraine’s joining NATO might be fraught with a threat to Russia’s national interests and border security. In response to Russia’s ultimatum so far, representatives of the North Atlantic Alliance have expressed a strong refusal. 

“We will not compromise on key principles on which European security is built, including that all countries have the right to determine their own future and foreign policy without outside interference”, — said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki. Representatives of the Ukrainian side have not commented on this yet.

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But both sides do not rule out the possibility of a dialogue. According to experts, the talks between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, which took place on 7 December 2021, may have contributed to this fact.