Sound The Trumpet : Ukraine Takes Historic Step Towards NATO

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“Ukraine Takes Historic Step Towards NATO”
by The Age
December 24th, 2014

The Ukraine parliament voted overwhelmingly to take steps towards joining NATO. Photo: AFP

Moscow: The Ukrainian parliament has voted to take steps towards joining NATO, a pointed rebuke to Russia that immediately drew an angry response.

With a Russian-backed separatist insurgency still gripping eastern Ukraine, the parliament voted overwhelmingly 303-8, to repeal a 2010 law that codified a policy of "non-alignment," and to instead pursue closer military and strategic ties with the West.

Former president Viktor Yanukovych, who was toppled in February after months of huge street protests in Kiev, pushed through the 2010 law shortly after he took office. Mr Yanukovych fled to Russia after he lost power.

The 2010 law defined non-alignment as "non-participation of Ukraine in the military-political alliances".

The revised law, which was a priority of President Petro Poroshenko, requires Ukraine to "deepen co-operation with NATO in order to achieve the criteria required for membership in this organisation."

For now, it still seems unlikely that Ukraine will join NATO, in part because of Russia's strong opposition. Moscow had set Kiev's exclusion from all military blocs as a condition for any deal on ending the pro-Russian uprising that has killed 4700 in the eastern Ukrainian rust belt in the past eight months.

Russia has denied repeatedly that it set off the separatist violence in eastern Ukraine, but in recent months it has also made clear that preventing Ukraine from seeking NATO membership is one of its top goals. In November, President Vladimir Putin's personal spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told the BBC: "We would like to hear a 100 per cent guarantee that no one would think about Ukraine's joining NATO."

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov sharply criticised the Ukrainian parliament's move.

"This is counterproductive," he said. "It only pumps up confrontation, and creates the illusion that by passing such laws it is possible to settle a deep domestic crisis within Ukraine."

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said even more bluntly that "in essence, an application for NATO membership will turn Ukraine into a potential military opponent for Russia".

Mr Medvedev warned that Ukraine's rejection of neutrality and a new Russian sanctions law that US President Barack Obama signed on Friday "will both have very negative consequences.

Perhaps the most immediate threat will be to delicate peace talks this week in the Belarussian capital Minsk that Mr Poroshenko announced on Monday.

The last two rounds of Minsk consultations in September produced a truce and the outlines of a broader peace agreement that gave the two separatist regions partial self-rule for three years within a united Ukraine. But the deals were followed by more fighting that killed at least 1300 people. The insurgents' decision to stage their own leadership polls in violation of the Minsk rules effectively ended political talks between the two sides.

A new meeting in Minsk had been hampered by Kiev's refusal to discuss lifting last month's suspension of social security and other benefit payments to the rebel-run districts. Ukraine's leaders suspect the money is being stolen by militias in the Russian-speaking Luhansk and Donetsk regions and used to finance their war.

Russia has called repeatedly for a new, federalised system of government in Ukraine, which would expand the powers of regional officials. Mr Poroshenko and his allies have been unwilling to create powerful regional governments, which might be more loyal to Moscow than Kiev. Instead, they have been drawing up a decentralisation plan that would increase the authority of local officials.

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