Peskov: We need guarantees that Ukraine will not join NATO

Russia needs "absolute guarantees that nobody is thinking of Ukraine’s joining the NATO". It was declared by the representative of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, as BBC Ukraine reports.

He emphasized that the Alliance breaks the historical promise by gradually approaching the Russian borders. As he noted, it makes Moscow get nervous.

Peskov also accused the NATO of an attempt "to break the balance of forces".

"We would like to hear that the NATO will stop approaching the Russian borders, stop its attempts to break the balance, the balance of forces," Putin's representative declared.

The NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declared that Russia continues to concentrate arms and manpower on the border with Ukraine and to support separatists, thus violating terms of the ceasefire. The Secretary General of the Alliance stressed that Russia has to respect its international obligations.

He also noted that flights of the Russian military aircraft in the international air space jeopardize civil flights: they switch off transponders that allow planes to detect one another.