Written by Staff Writer
“These are not the words that are spoken by a friend, and I hope that Russia will hear these words. We are talking here about the threat of invasion, and frankly I wouldn’t worry about anything else [in Ukraine]. We don’t accept Russia’s claims as legitimate, and we don’t consider any annexation of any part of Ukraine legitimate.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour about the crisis with Russia, said that he’s against Moscow’s “separatist” model of governance in eastern Ukraine:
“The European Union will not accept this Ukrainian, Russian model of political representation and authority. To accept this kind of act of aggression is really unacceptable and I think the Europeans are going to take a stand against it. They saw this in the referendum in Crimea, they saw this in a political vote by the people of Crimea, and they have even today started to think about what they are going to do with any other breakaway regions, separatist regions, such as Donbass or Crimea. And I hope this also applies to Donbass.”
NATO is not seeking membership for Ukraine.
“NATO is going to take all measures possible to protect its members, but we will not expand NATO to Ukraine. We will not create a permanent military presence along the Ukraine-Russia border. And of course NATO members will continue to keep a force on their own borders for their defense.”