Moscow [Russia], February 19: Russia on Tuesday demanded NATO scrap its 2008 promise to one day give Ukraine membership of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance and dismissed the idea that NATO member forces could be keepers of the peace under some sort of ceasefire deal.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said talks in Saudi Arabia, where he met Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, had been useful and that both sides had listened to each other.
But as the meeting was under way, Russia's foreign ministry said Moscow's long-standing objection to NATO membership for Ukraine required more than just not letting Ukraine join the alliance for now.
"A refusal to accept Kyiv into NATO is not enough now," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in response to a question from Reuters.
"The alliance must disavow the Bucharest promises of 2008," she said in Moscow, referring to a NATO summit that year where both Ukraine and Georgia were told they could join the alliance, but without a timetable or any path for how to get there.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Corporation
